Ghost - Could It Be Halloween
by kay.hayden
Summary: I dearly love a good mystery and this next story has been sitting in my computer for close to six months waiting for the right timing - October is the month. Once more Eyal and Annie find themselves involved in murder, mystery and one or two ghost roaming around a haunted mansion. Kick back and I hope you enjoy this ghostly tale of international spies and whodunit.
1. Why London

Leaves turning to rich shades of warm colors to announce the arrival of fall. Annie and Danielle were doing what the sisters love to do best - shopping for Katia and Chole. This trip looking for Halloween costumes. Katia wanting to be a lady pirate and Chole had several in mind, a princess, clown or a dragon.

Annie wasn't sure if she would be in town for Halloween but decided to find something for her to have on hand just in case she could go to the Halloween party at the school.

Holding up a 1920's Flapper costume, "What do you think?"

"I love it Annie, it is so you." Danielle gives her approval to Annie and in turn she holding a Dorothy costume. "I always loved the 'Wizard of Oz' and Dorothy with her ruby-red shoes."

"You would think we were kids again the way we are acting. Oh, look here is the perfect pirate wench for Katia and in her size." Annie back picking out costumes from the vast collection the specialty shop had to offer.

Danielle finding the Princess Anna Coronation gown from the movie 'Frozen'. "Look at the detail in this costume, it is so beautiful. What do you think?"

"Perfect find Danielle. Chole will be lovely as Anna and so fitting for the princess of Arendelle. I have watched the movie twice with the girls." Annie checking her watch, "I've got to run and check in at work. See you at home." Annie piling Danielle's arms with costumes and dashing out of the shop.

A little past eleven o'clock when Annie reached Langley and knowing she was going to get that you need to be more punctual talk from Joan.

Annie, in my office. You too Auggie." Joan scuffed when Annie finally made it in.

With a groan and weary shake of his head, Auggie wasn't ready to listen to Joan ream out Annie, trudged into Joan's office and waited for Annie to enter before he closed the door. As her handler he really didn't want those out in the bull pen to hear Annie's latest chewing out.

"Joan, I know I'm late but…" Annie saying apologetically.

"That's not it, Annie." Joan cut her off. "This isn't about your consistent tardiness. I have a mission for you and Auggie. Priority one and on the QT. You will be working in England so it is of the utmost importance you keep an especially low profile, understand. Put whatever you're working on the back burner."

"What is it?" Annie asked suddenly alert, always eager for a new assignment.

"Have you heard of the Malcolm McMillan affair?" Joan asked as she picked up a thick folder and handed it to Annie.

Annie took the folder as she nodded. "Yeah, the spy holding some high-ranking office in England and was arrested in London. He was working for the Russians but I'm a little fuzzy on how he came here in this country and what his involvement with the US was."

"Exactly." Joan nodded. "Malcolm McMillan had been with MI6 and later became involved in politics, served as a member of the UK Parliament and later as Deputy Chief of Defense, a very powerful position. He worked a short while with the US in an intelligent information exchange up until he returned to England. He died about 5 years ago under very mysterious conditions while in the hands of Scotland Yard. We think it was a hit by the Russians to keep him quiet. Since then both his homes in England has been tied up in court, while his relatives fight over who gets it."

"I remember." Annie was looking through the file on McMillan. "So, what's so priority one about an English politician and his house?"

"It's what's in that house or I should say manor home." Joan told him. "We got some information, through one of our sources, that McMillan kept some classified files in locked vault in an underground basement. And when I say classified, I mean Classified with a capital C. From what we're told he had names and code names of all of our top agents when he was with us and while serving with the British Defense Department, as well those of MI6 and a few other allied organizations including Interpol. He was also rumored to have information on Russian double agents implanted in other countries and agencies. That is what is important to us."

Auggie still didn't understand why it was of such importance. "That was years ago, Joan. Wouldn't most of those files be out of date by now?"

Joan nodded, "Yeah, probably, but not all of them. We do have some agents still out there, who were active back then as so the other bureaus have. The who is who of Russian agents imbedded in sensitive areas is most important to us. I've got Eric working on a list right now, of those that could be affected. Sorry Auggie for going around you but you were tire up with Arthur on another project."

Annie glanced down at the folder again. "Okay," she said a little warily. Right then it didn't seem like there wasn't too much for her to do, but she knew Joan better than that. "So. What is it you want me to do that can't be done thru diplomatic sources or an international court order to turn those files over to us?"

Joan looked directly at Annie. "We can't get a court order or even let it be known that we have this information because we have no proof it's there. Only the word of an informant and a shaky one at that. We'll need to get the permission of one of the relatives. But there is only one relative who might help us."

"Okay but this in not sounding good at all."

"Auggie I need for you to find out all the information you can on Blair Vogel, a niece of Malcolm McMillan and the best way for Annie to approach her. She is one of the relatives that stands to inherit the mansion and maybe sympatric to our cause."

"On it." Auggie turning on his laser cane and finding the door and on his way to research one English woman named Blair Vogel.

"Where is Malcolm McMillan's mansion located?"

"It is more like a small castle on the south coast of England in a remote area about four miles east of Seaford on the English Channel. You'll fly into London and rent a car there, also there is where Blair Vogel lives, just outside of London. McMillan's London residence has been searched by Interpol as well as MI6 and Scotland Yard with nothing but the castle near Seaford has pretty much gone untouched since the first search by MI6. I suggest you go home and pack with hopes Auggie can come up with the needed intel soon.

"Never heard of Seaford, England."

"Nor have I. Go Google it and see what you can find out. You could be leaving late tonight or first thing in the morning." Joan back to shoving papers on her desk, a sign that Annie was dismissed.

Packing was Annie's next move and with a quick check of the weather in England she knew it would be quite chilly for October. With no idea for the length of the mission or what it would require she should go prepared for any and all occasions. More than likely she would be spending Halloween in England and that's when she stood and look at her newly purchased 1920's Flapper costume with all the extras. Pack it - yes/no or maybe. Yes pack it.

"You leaving again? Where to this time." Danielle entered Annie bedroom with a plate of her most recent baking endeavor - sweet lemon bars. "Here give these a taste and tell how you like them. Thinking about making a large batch for the Halloween party."

Annie cramming her mouth full of the sweet tasting pastry and shaking her head in approval, "Good." She started packing her Halloween costume, just in case.

"Where to this time or can you tell me?"

"England and not sure for how long. Sorry I may miss the girls' party."

"They'll miss you but have gotten use to your traveling. Anyway, I'll take loads of pictures." Danielle looking at the black wig in 20's hair style, "A mass of curls back then, I would hate to sleep in the curlers they would need to get this style."

"Yeah me too, that's why I got the wig and black kinda of fits Halloween."

"All you need is a black cat to carry." Danielle laughing as she neatly covered the wig for packing. "Got to be running Annie, be careful and will see you when you get back."

"Thanks Danielle and give the girls my love."

Nine-thirty that night and the CIA is still busy as if was midday. Auggie leaning back in his chair listening to a quick recap from Eric about Blair Vogel. Annie all packed and ready to go when ever came in the office with a carrying tray of Starbucks coffee.

"Good you are here Walker as you can go through all this we have on Blair Vogel." Auggie taking the cup Annie had just handed to him and with a deep sniff of the dark brew. "Go ahead Eric with your briefing."

"Thanks for the coffee." Eric tilting his cup to Annie. "Like I was telling Auggie, this Blair Vogel is one rich socialite in London and Edinburgh, Scotland. Having been born to the upper class she has enjoyed the life of the upper crust. Endless parties, trips abroad and homes in both London and Edinburgh with a large summer country manor near Dorchester in the south of England. She was married to Jordon Vogel, the tenth Earl of a German family and that is the estate where she now lives,_ Kleinbruck __Hall_ located in Chesham, just west of London. He was killed in a private plane crash three years ago while flying over the Baltic Sea near the coast of Lithuania. They never recovered his body."

"Foul play maybe?" Annie asked.

"Possibly and the main suspect is the Russian KGB. Nothing concrete but it is believed Jordon Vogel was a KGB agent. I've come up with pictures." Eric pulling up old photos of the Jordon Vogel and Blair Vogel."

"Big age difference. She must be twenty to thirty years younger."

"Not much is found on Jordon Vogel but the little I can find is Jordon Vogel was born in Berlin, Germany in 1943 in the eastern sector and it wasn't until 1995 that he showed up in London with a wealth of money to invest. Now Blair was born Blair Kristine Stewart in 1965 to Malcolm's widow sister and her decease husband Montgomery Stewart. Like I said before, she lived a life of the affluent elite, private schools and hobnobbing with the rich and famous."

Annie taking a closer look at several pictures. "She is not the most attractive woman I've seen. On the homely looking side."

"If her face was painted green she would look like that wicked witch of the west in the _Wizard of Oz_." Eric picking up his open bag of potato chips and offer some to Annie.

"Wealth has and still can buy her handsome male escorts and she does like the handsome younger set. It was not beneath her to cheat on the aging Jordon Vogel." Auggie added to the intel, maybe a useless piece of intel but all the same might come in handy.

"That's it? That is all you have?" Annie search for any other information.

"She likes to party. Yeah Annie, that is it. Now if you were of the male type you just may have your way in." Auggie again adding his take on the information at hand.

"By now she is the one using the men for her own pleasure. No, that is not the way to go but maybe something along the lines of party. Find out what is happening with the social group over the next few days and if you can find where she might be. That will be my angle."

* * *

><p>London was misty that early morning when Annie's flight from New York arrived. She was tired, hungry and wanting a long hot bath. Armed with the latest intel Eric could find she was ready to located Blair Vogel on a friendly bases and use her pervasive power to let her gain entrance to the McMillan castle. As she walked to the car rental counter there stood a familiar figure, tall and watching her walk toward him. Eyal Lavin draped across the side of the counter. One hand on the top, the other oh so casually in his pocket. Even in an ordinary business suit he looked oh so handsome, Annie thought. When she stepped a little closer, she saw his eyes slowly travel the length of her body and then settle on her face.<p>

"Do I look alright?" She asked, "You are gawking."

"You look fine and I was not gawking just admiring a beautiful woman. What brings you to England. Thought Europe was now off-limits to the CIA?"

"And nice to see you again Eyal and I may ask the same question."

"We may very well be on the same mission. A double agent died a few years back and it has come to light there are files that maybe of interest to Mossad."

"And the CIA as well as MI6. The McMillan castle."

"I'm not saying but may be so. No need to rent two cars and both go to the same place. Come ride with me and we'll catch up on news and whatever." Eyal not waiting for an answer took the handle of Annie's luggage and guided her out of the terminal and to his Audi.

"Where to?" Annie asked as Eyal held the door of the Audi for her.

"I don't know about you but I could use something to eat and conversation. Know a nice little place not far from here where they serve an early breakfast. Anything your heart desires is on the menu."

And Eyal was quite right, _Blackpatch Pub_ was located near Old Town and London University and relatively picturesque with dark green almost black front and the menu boost of the traditional full English breakfast but one could also pick and chose.

"Think I'll order porridge, a little stick to your ribs on such a nasty morning, sausage links, scramble eggs and potato scones. Nice mug of hot tea and what would you like?"

"Fried eggs, tomatoes and potato scones also. Do they serve coffee?" Annie putting down the menu.

"That Neshema they do but it is a bit strong."

"Fine with me. I need something to wake me up or at least keep me from falling to sleep. I haven't learned to sleep on a plane very well yet."

"In time you will learn to sleep in any place and in any position just don't do it when there is action going on around you." Eyal chucking at Annie.

Over breakfast they talked about their reason for being in England and both were the same.

"Tonight is a big cocktail and haunted theater party, sort of a pre-All-Hallows-Eve charity event and I've got tickets. Dress code is all black, much like vampires. You didn't happen to bring you lady vampire clothes with you?"

"No but with a bit of shopping I can find something that will work. Elvira, Mistress of Darkness will soon emerge." Annie with the thrill of finding the needed black to dress like one of her favorite late night horror hostess TV. "Need to find a wig shop and a lingerie shop."

"Lingerie shop? Nice Neshema and me without having to buy you dinner and asking." Eyal face lit up with a twinkle in his eye and half smirk of a smile.


	2. Elvira, Mistress of Darkness

Annie's shopping spree was successful in finding the needed long straight black wig, and a silky type long black negligee that hung to her curves gracefully. Black pushup bra and as much cleavage as possible, long black gloves all topped with a black shawl. Heavy smoky eye makeup and dark red lipstick and Annie had transformed into the Queen of Darkness.

Eyal didn't disappoint, dress in all black suit, with black shirt and tie complete with a cape lined in dark red and wearing a top hat, pushed a bit forward to enhance his dark mystifying eyes and carrying a cane. Damn didn't he look handsome and devilish Annie's mind begins to wonder. A night of sinful delight with this elusive man of mystery and anonymity along with her muse her body reacting she felt a tingle. _'Keep it under control Walker. Eyal is only a friend but my god is he one sexy fine-looking and lustful looking friend.' _

"If we don't meet our target tonight at least we'll have some fun. Shall we Elvira and must say you look exceeding sexy tonight." She actually looked more than sexy, she looked fine in many ways to him but he was loath to admit it, even to himself.

"All part of the playgirl cover. And you Eyal are also looking sexy. Now that we are in character, shall we go and have some bewitching fun?" What she didn't say was he always looks sexy to she would keep that piece of information to herself.

_The Prince Richard Royal Theatre_ welcome guest to a night of mystery, mayhem and murder underfoot all in the backdrop of the stage adaption of Agatha Christie's _'Sleeping Murder'_.

The lobby decked out in the 1930's decor to set the mood for the play that is also set in southern England during the 1930's. The benefiting charity is Children's Hospice Association of England and a well deserving charity. Perhaps the extreme wealthy didn't contribute with hands on but their money is enormously important to the hospice operation and this evening was no exception to the amount of funds to be raised. The party-goers, all dress in dark colors and their different interpretation of vampires and seductive women of the night were in a happy mood, and of course Scottish whiskey flowing freely. Eyal ordering two _Robbie Burns_ for them to enjoy before the play.

Both with their drinks in hand mixed with the crowd hoping to spot Blair Vogel but no luck. Annie finding the hors d'oeuvre table stops to nibble on a tasty smoked salmon appetizer. Eyal stood by her side also indulging in some Devils on Horseback - fitting for a haunting evening at the theater.

"She just arrived with her escort, bypassed the bar and went straight into the theater, second floor and private box seating section." Eyal leaning close to Annie and speaking just above a whisper. "Our only next chance is the after production party to meet the cast members."

Just then the light blinked to call the guest into the theater for the start of _'Sleeping Murder'_. A skillful done rendition of Agatha Christie's novel about the famous detective Miss Marple as she helps a young couple who choose to uncover the events in the wife's past and not let a sleeping murder lie.

The after production party was for VIP's only of which Eyal also had an invitation to attend. As they were walking down the spiral stair case leading to a large reception/banquet room, Eyal took Annie arm and lead her to one side.

"What's going on Eyal?"

"Think I need to read you in on a little detail I may have forgotten to tell you."

"You didn't forget, just chicken to tell me."

"Perhaps you are right Neshema but if we get the chance to speak with Blair I need for you to call me George."

"Oh my god no, you have some track record with her in the past as... Oh let me guess George Yiokas from Cyprus."

"European antique dealers have their place with the social upper class." Eyal smiled and once more taking Annie's arm and they falling in with the rest of the gathering. "Well, let's get going, shall we?"

Light music playing as the cast members mingle with the guest and once more the bar was open. Eyal quickly got a second round of _Robbie Burns _for him and Annie and started scouring the crowd for Blair Vogel. There she was, standing with another women and her escort nowhere in sight. Eyal quickly pointed her out to Annie.

"Think it best I make to contact alone, you keep an eye out for the escort to return."

Before Annie could say a word, Eyal was gone with Annie's drink in his hand, he was going to offer it to Blair. Annie could only shake her head, which was so Eyal. Well she need to find another drink and made her way to the bar.

"Might I make a suggestion on drinks?" An older gentleman stepped to one side as Annie approached.

"Why yes, please do." Annie smile at the friendly ruddy face man with a neatly cut snow-white beard and hair. He was as others dressed in black but sported a tartan plaid vest and ruffle tie.

"_Flora MacDonald_, a great mixture of Drambuie, dry gin with two measures of French Vermouth. Must say it is only for slipping and lasting the rest of the evening but oh so good and smooth." The man turning to the bartender and ordering two drinks.

Handing Annie her drink with a smile. "I must have lost my good manners, I'm Brayan McDuff from Edinburgh and that is my wife Carrie over there trying to hit the wealthy up for a sizable contribution to our charity."

"Your charity is the beneficiary of this event?"

"Yes, Children's Hospice Association of England and there is another one in Scotland as well as North Ireland, the only one of its kind. Just for children and young adults with terminal illness. We started it twenty-eight years ago when our daughter was in need of such a residence the last months of her life. She died of cancer."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it was thru her death that we found our calling beyond the rush of making money one could never spend in a lifetime. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to make my rounds and help the wife."

Leaving Annie alone with her drink, she was content to watch the guest and soon the cast member came in, chatting and shaking hands with all. The woman who played Miss Marple quickly found her way to the bar and stood by Annie.

"Enjoyed the performance very well done." Annie smiling at the short older woman still with heavy makeup.

"Thank you. That looks inviting, what is it?"

"I think it's call a _Flora MacDonald."_

"Smashing. That is what I have." And the woman hastily turned her back to Annie - so much for small talk.

Annie tried to find Eyal but was difficult in the mass of people so she decided to just slip her drink and watch. Speaking once to one of the actors but mostly watching and sizing up the different VIPs that had gathered. Wasn't long before Eyal found Annie.

"So far so good. We have an appointment with Blair Vogel tomorrow." Eyal slipping close beside Annie. "Now would you like to stay longer or leave."

"I've seen enough so if it is okay with you I would like to go." Annie slipping her arm through his.

Their walk along the misty and foggy London night was reminisce of the nights so many tales of murder and mayhem would take place in the 1800's with maybe Sherlock Holmes or even Dr. Watson roaming about. A lone man stood next to a lamp-post smoking a pipe and watching, his hat pulled low over his eyes and as Eyal and Annie walked by the man nodded his head ever so slightly.

"A night for Jack-the-Ripper to be out and about." Eyal in his low yet haunting voice.

"Don't say that. It is a ghostly of a night and I'm not all that settled with it." Annie stepping a little closer to Eyal.

"You are with me Neshema and nothing will happen. Well maybe something will happen."

"There you go again with those quips." Annie bumping him with her hip.

"What quips."

"About us and well you know." Her chin tilted up to his in a teasing way, a slightly seductive way.

"I don't know but wish I did. Come on Annie light up. It isn't if we haven't thought about it. Not since that time back in DC, the _Honey Trap_. And I have to verbalize the pleasure in looking at you tonight with your Elvira, Mistress of Darkness black and exceptionally fantastic sexy outfit. A man's fantasy in walking and breathing flesh."

"Maybe I should have chosen something different, more in the line of a nun. I'm still the blonde underneath all this black. "

"And still a man's fantasy or my fantasy. I understand the put off Annie and won't push but one day, yeah one day timing will be right for you. So until then I take you back to your hotel room and leave you alone."

"Maybe I don't want to be left alone."

"Neshema timing is everything and it isn't our time yet. I know I've make uncalled for remarks and I shouldn't and for that I'm sorry... oh no, I'm not sorry in the least. You are a gorgeous woman and I have had fantasy but we should be both are ready. Right now my sweet Annie, you are not at that point and I know it."

"Maybe you are right and I hate to wreck a beautiful friendship. But one day timing will be right and..."

"It will be a lovely evening for both of us."

* * *

><p>The drive to Chesham the next morning was nice, the English weather with a touch of nippiness was bright and clear. When they reached Blair Vogel estate, Eyal hurried from the car and rushed around to get the door for Annie. Making sure to tuck her arm into his, he placed his hand on hers, for the benefit of anyone who might be observing them. Annie said nothing and went along with the ruse, relishing in Eyal's attentions, even though his purpose in doing so irked her, he was showing off for some reason.<p>

As they walked towards the front door, Annie scanned the house and was impressed with the three story mansion. The outside, composed of stone and heavy beam, with high arched windows, somewhat gave the impression of a medieval fortress.

"Interesting house," she remarked as they approached the entry.

"Wait till you see the owner." Eyal remarked.

Annie shot him a puzzled look as the door was opened and an elderly man ushered them into the foyer.

"We're here to see Lady Vogel." Eyal told him. "My name is George Yiokas. I believe I have an appointment."

The man eyed him warily and looked even more suspiciously at Annie but said only, "This way," as he pivoted to his left and led them into a richly decorated yet very masculine study.

"The lady of the house will be with you shortly." He told them as he left and closed the doors behind him.

The room was large, dominated by a huge mahogany desk with elaborate carving and flanked with bookcases fully loaded with seemingly weighty volumes. A large settee and two leather wing backed chairs sat in the far corner by a large window, a large oval, glass and wood coffee table sat in front of that. On just every surface sat expensive looking vases and other items that made Annie nervous just to be in the same room with them.

"The room seems dreadfully dark for a woman's taste. I would have thought there would be more cheery colors." Annie whisper to Eyal.

Eyal shrugged with a grin and led her over to the couch. "You'll understand when you meet her." He said just as the door opened and Blair Vogel walked in.

She was tall and thin, with a pale complexion, wispy reddish/blond hair cut in a short bob, a large aquiline nose, and a prominent mole on her left cheek near her nose and over tweezed pencil thin eyebrows. She was most certainly not attractive. Her clothes, though expensive, the dark green tunic hung loosely over her thin body only giving a glimpse at some well rounded breast implants. Opera length pearls and several precious expensive rings on her long graceful fingers enlighten Annie of her wealth. Bright red lipstick highlighted her thin lips and deep blue eye shadow did nothing to help her wide-set blue-gray eyes.

"George, Darling," Blair exclaimed as she came into the room. "I am so…" she paused when she spotted Annie sitting beside Eyal on the couch. "Oh, hello." She gave Eyal a bewildered glance as she moved towards Annie and extended her hand. "I'm Blair Vogel. You must be George's secretary?"

"Uh… no," Annie shook her hand, trying hard not to snicker at the high reedy voice coming from the woman in front of her. "I'm…"

"She's my partner, Anna Walters." Eyal spoke up, giving Annie a tight and overly friendly hug. "I'm sorry about this Blair. I was on my way over here when Anna called and asked if I'd pick her up. See her car broke down and well, you understand. I had to help her out, so I just brought her with me so I wouldn't miss my appointment with you. Meeting with you is so important to me and of course when we got here, I just couldn't leave her out in the car."

Annie cut her eyes at Eyal. _'Now who's rambling?'_ She thought and what a dumb story.

"I see." Blair's tone was cold and brusque. "Well, George," Blair practically snarled. "I'm sorry you came over here for nothing. But I am simply too busy to meet with you right now."

She hatefully eyed Annie as she spoke and Eyal realized his bring Annie may have been a mistake but he didn't cherish any desire of rekindling the sexual affair he had once had just to gain access to McMillan's castle. To keep Blair at bay by bringing Annie with him may have kept her too far at bay. "Oh, I thought we had an appointment." Eyal said.

"We did." She glared over at Annie.

Annie wasn't blind but was awfully uncomfortable. "You know, George…" She avoided Blair's scowl. "I think I'd like to walk around a bit. It's a nice day and well…" she trailed off seeing the look on Eyal's face. One that was begging her not to leave him alone with Blair Vogel but she knew if Eyal stood any chance of gaining access to that castle, it would be without her around.

"I have the most scenic and expensive landscaping in Buckinghamshire and the colors are beautiful this time of year." Blair nodded towards the door. "Please feel free to roam the garden."

"Thank you." Annie gave her the briefest of smiles and barely glanced at Eyal as she hastily made her way to the exit.

Eyal wanted to go with her but he had no choice. "Well." He swallowed hard when he saw the look on Blair's face. "What do you say, we sit down and talk."

An hour later, Annie was beginning to get worried and a bit nervous, rethinking her quick exit from the house. But Eyal was a trained agent and quite capable of taking care of himself beside that had been some type of history between them. He would be just fine. Wouldn't he?"

"Annie."

She turned to find him near the front gate.

"Let's go." He said, waving her over.

When she reached his side, she saw his hair was mussed and he had a lipstick stain on his collar. Arching a brow at him, she had to work hard to stifle a giggle. "Well, I see she got what she wanted." She noted. "Did you?"

"We're to meet her at the castle tomorrow afternoon." Eyal said. He desperately wanted to get to the hotel and take a shower to wash Blair's cloying perfume from his skin. He also wanted to be mad at Annie for abandoning him, but she'd been right.

"We?" Annie questioned.

"We." Eyal confirmed. "It is part of your mission as well and I will not be caught alone with that over sex shark again."

"Giving up the fight and I thought it would make you happy to have a rich woman make advances toward you." Annie started laughing as they climbed into his car and drove away.


	3. Trotter Castle

The next morning's bright sunshine and pleasant drive through the English country side as Eyal and Annie headed south toward Crawley where they stopped for a late morning breakfast. The entire road trip would only take a little less than an hour and a half but they wanting to spend some time taking in the sights as Annie had never been outside of London. Breakfast order and both drinking a hot cup of tea, not saying much as Annie was interested in how and when Eyal previously knew Blair Vogel and Eyal wanting to avoid the subject all together.

"Guess there is no getting around avoiding the subject if I ever want to hear you speak to me again."

"What subject." Annie peeking over her mug at Eyal.

"The Blair Vogel subject."

"Well I was wondering."

"Blair was once married to a German aristocratic by the name of Jordon Vogel."

"That much I know, the tenth Earl of a German family." Annie putting down her mug and resting her chin in both hands to listen to Eyal's tale of one Blair Vogel and George Yiokas.

"The Kleinbruck family is extraordinarily wealthy from East Berlin. When the Russian were closing in during WWII, the head of the family transferred large holdings of the family's vast wealth to foreign banks and almost forgotten. East Berlin as we know was cut off from the western world by the Russians and not much is known about what happen to many of the wealthy families and that included the Kleinbruck family. The little we do know is Jordon was the son of Richanda Kleinbruck and her husband Buell Vogel. Sometime in the 1990's Jordon shows up in London, wining and dining Blair Steward, the niece of Malcolm McMillan and soon married."

"She married for money."

"Blair likes what money can buy so yeah I'm sure that was her reason but Jordon Vogel may have had another." Eyal thanking the waitress for another cup of tea as they were served breakfast. "Little over three years ago Mossad had some special interest in Jordon Vogel and I won't go into that but I was given the mission to get close to him or his wife to find out as much as I could. They have a lovely London flat in Chelsea and she wanted to redecorate. Now that was my in, George Yiokas antique dealer in the finest European antiques money can buy."

"One thing leads to another, hmmm..."

"All part of the mission, yeah you might say that but her information was very good indeed and what a price I had to pay and money didn't interest her."

"She was cheating on her husband."

"Certainly not the first time. Blair has a real appetite for the other sex." Eyal starting to eat his breakfast.

"Now that I did notice." Annie giggled.

"How could you not." Eyal scuffed. "Evidently things were closing in on Jordon Vogel and his private plane crashed about three months later. His body was never found but we think he is still alive and well in the safety of Russia."

"Did Blair know her husband was a Russian spy?"

"No, not a clue but she also being the jealous type kept close tabs on him and that was all we needed."

"Guess if the goose is playing around so is the gander." Annie laughing at the thought of Blair and her many boy toys - the pleasures money can buy.

"Lucky for Mossad." Eyal finishing his breakfast and ready to hit the road again. "Ready to motivate?"

Annie finishing her last cup of tea, "I need to hit the little ladies room before we start, I won't take long."

Arriving in Seaford on the English Channel, Eyal and Annie took their time to have a look around, something season spies do, recon the area. A coastal town and very quaint and beautiful in a rugged looking way. Parking the car, they walked several blocks, stopping along the way in different shops and of course asking about the McMillan estate.

"Haunted you say." Eyal speaking with one of the local shop keepers, a woman in her late sixties and friendly.

"I should say. There are all kinds of strange things going on out there and we have heard even murder."

"Murder now. What about it, did the authorities catcher the killer?" Eyal with a curious tone to his voice.

"Blood everywhere but no dead body ever found, buried some place on the grounds my guess and walks the halls at night looking for his or her killer. On bright moon lit nights you can hear the high voice call out in some weird language. Like a banshee calling and within a week someone will die."

"Is anyone living out there?"

"For heaven's sake no but Busby Ferguson is the caretaker, goes out there every other week to take care of the grounds but will not go near the castle. He has told of noises coming from the old section of the home place, strange clanging of sorts."

Annie with more questions and asking with a friendly smile. "Do you know the current owner?"

"Blair Stewart and a strange one at that. Known her since she was a child and I don't mine telling you she marches to a different drummer. Doesn't live here anymore, not enough upper crust for her liking if you know what I mean."

"Yes, we think we do. We are to meet her today to have a look inside. My partner and I are thinking about an investment of sorts in the property." Annie giving a reason for their interest.

"Be thankful you going in day light. No one in their right mind would adventure out to _Trotter Castle_ after dark."

"_Trotter Castle_, is that the name of the place?"

"It was once a fortified watch tower on the Trotter vast estate. Somewhere about three hundred years ago the manor house was build and attached to the old tower for one of Trotter's many sons. It's not a castle but that is what the young Trotter calls it, his castle and the name stuck."

A few more questions and answers before Annie and Eyal departed for _Trotter Castle_ and their meeting with Blair Vogel. The drive along the windblown coastal road heading to and finding the access road leading to _Trotter Castle_, an old tree-lined road did little to alleviate the gloomy and depressing atmosphere of the estate. From the black iron gates with overgrown vines surrounding the place to the once iron fountain now falling in decay it seemed a fine atmosphere for mystery and mayhem.

The tower beside the manor house was an old stone watch tower reaching to the sky and several missing stones blocks from the top. The attached empty manor house of brick and stucco, old harsh weathered look it was dark and foreboding, seemed to exude a sort of wickedness all of its own. With a heavy iron fence surrounding it, peeling paint as well as the decaying portico it looked like the perfect place to stage a Halloween party, complete with ghosts.

Blair agreed to give Eyal access for a couple of hours that afternoon but only in her company. He accepted, because he had no choice. But he had no intentions of going in there alone - not with Blair.

"Well," Annie remarked looking up at the gray, two and a half story house. "I certainly see why Blair Vogel wouldn't want to live in this creepy old house. But why would she want this place at all? It looks like it's about to fall down. It surely can't be worth all that much."

"_Trotter Castle_ isn't," Eyal agreed looking out the window at the decrepit building. "But what's in it may be. After I dropped you off last night, I did some research. There's a reason relatives are lining up for a piece of this place."

"What do you mean? Is there some sort of treasure in there?" Annie couldn't imagine that place having anything but cobwebs and ghosts.

Eyal shrugged. "Well, there's been a rumor, for years, that McMillan hid all sorts of documents in the house as well as gold and jewels and anything else of value he could get his hands on. The claims have mostly been discounted or discredited but the rumors persisted. So much so that every relative the good Deputy Chief had, no matter how distant, wants this place thinking they'll strike it rich. Blair Vogel being the only daughter of his only sister, and the closest one to him, is currently the only one with keys to this place. Though, by the looks of it, keys wouldn't be too necessary to get in."

"But I thought Blair Vogel was already rich." Annie asked, confused.

"She is," Eyal nodded. "But apparently not as rich as she would like everyone to think. I found some information on her last night, indicating she made some risky investments with her dead husband's money that didn't pay off. She's not destitute but if her bank account keeps bleeding, she might have to reconsider the big homes and servants she currently has."

Annie looked at him in shock. "It is hard for me to believe she was ever married." She couldn't imagine the woman she saw ever being able to attract a man, much less get one willing to marry her.

Eyal chuckled. "Well, she was much younger than and her husband, Jordon Vogel, was much older. Also Malcolm McMillan was well off but not fifty rich and Jordon Vogel was the one with money."

"Maybe he saw something in her no one else did." Annie nodded her head in wonder.

"Maybe so."

Just then, Eyal saw Blair Vogel's Mercedes pull into the driveway. "Here we go." He said as he got out of the car and came around to Annie's side.

Blair had a smile for Eyal until she saw Annie get out of his car. "Good morning." She greeted them rather stiffly. "I didn't know you were bringing her with you." She spoke to Eyal with a scowl directed at Annie.

"Well, I explained that," Eyal put on his most charming smile. "Annie is my partner. She has to come with me on things like this." When the woman didn't seem convinced, he stepped away from Annie and moved closer to her. "Come on, now, Blair. Remember what we talked about yesterday?"

Suddenly Blair giggled an unattractive sound to be sure, and grinned at Eyal. "Well, alright." She happily grabbed Eyal's hand and led him toward the house, totally ignoring Annie. "Come on, let's get this over with, so you and I can enjoy some time alone together."

Eyal swallowed hard and cast a pleading look in Annie's direction. The last thing he wanted to do was spend any sort of time alone with Blair Vogel. But Annie just gave him her sweetest smile and followed along behind them without a word.

When the front door opened on creaky hinges to what, at one time, used to be considered a mansion, dust flew out from everywhere and sounds seemed to emanate from the belly of the house as though it was alive. "No one's entered this house, besides me, since my uncle died." Blair said, as she entered and looked about the gloomy interior. "As you can see, nothing's been touched."

"I see." Eyal nodded as he looked around. Glancing over at Annie, he could see the place had the same chilling effect on her, as it did him.

Crammed with old furniture and knick knacks of every sort, it looked dangerous just on that standpoint alone. But there also seemed to be an underlying evil that permeated the place and reached into the very heart of anyone who dared to enter. Shaking his head, Eyal briefly pressed his hand into the small of Annie's back to reassure her, and himself as well, that there was nothing in the old mansion besides inanimate objects that couldn't hurt anyone.

"Well George, where would you like to start looking?" Blair asked Eyal.

"The basement." Eyal answered as he quickly stepped away from Annie. He wanted Blair on his side until this search was finished. And she wouldn't be, if he paid any special attention to his partner.

Blair led them through the dark, cluttered and musty smelling hallway to a room that had been converted into a kitchen and to a door just to the right of the back entryway.

"I don't believe anyone's been down here at all since uncle died." Blair stated as she opened the door and switched on her flashlight. "I'm not sure what shape the stairs are in. It could be awfully dangerous going down."

Something in the way she said that, bothered Eyal and he instinctively stepped in front of the two women, more to protect Annie than Blair. "Tell you what." He smiled gallantly. "Let me go down first, then you follow me and Anna can come in behind you. That way, if there is any problem with the stairs, I'll find it first and can keep you from getting hurt."

"Oh, George, you're such a sweetheart." Blair smiled happily giving a gloating look to Annie.

Annie said nothing, understanding Eyal's thinking. Being the last on the stairs, she would also be the safest. Giving Blair the merest of nods, she stepped aside and let Eyal go first, then Blair. But as Eyal led the way down into the bowels of the ancient creaking structure, she prayed the whole way, they'd escape unscathed.

Despite one broken stair tread near the bottom, the trip down was uneventful and Eyal smiled when Annie finally reached the floor of the basement and stepped down beside him. "Okay." He said, clapping his hands together with more enthusiasm than he felt. "Let's get started looking."

The basement however, seemed to be even more formidable than the upper level of the house. Against every wall, was stacked either a filing cabinet, a pile of boxes, or broken furniture of some kind. The late Deputy Chief of Defense, it seemed, never threw out anything. There was barely a path between the mounds of debris on either side to get from the bottom of the stairs to the other end where a large old roll-top desk stood on weary legs, covered in spider webs and paper.

Carefully, and with an eye behind him occasionally, to reassure himself of Annie's safety, Eyal led the way across the basement with his flashlight held in front as though it were his gun. Right then, the security of light, in that scary old basement, trumped that of the gun.

Annie looked dolefully at the countless number of boxes and piles of paper then back to Eyal. "Where do we start?"

Eyal shrugged and reached for the nearest box. Picking it up, he handed it to her. "Here" He answered as he took a box for himself.

"Well," Blair sighed and grabbed the only chair as she watched Eyal and Annie get to work. "I think I'll have a seat while I wait for you two."

Eyal threw Annie an exasperated glance, and with a shake of his head, opened his first box. As he did so, he felt a sudden cold draft of air sweep over him and for just a moment, he could've sworn he heard piano music, but he shrugged it off as his imagination. Though she hadn't felt the cold air, Annie had heard the music as well. But one look at Eyal and she decided it best to keep that to herself.

Two hours later, which was all the time Blair would allow them, they emerged from the underground space, dirty and exhausted and with very little to show for their trouble.

Both Eyal and Annie were coughing while they dusted off their clothes as best as possible. But they noticed, other than a light coating of dust on Blair's shoulder she seemed to have suffered little from her trip to the basement.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Annie opined as she stretched her aching back and anxiously searched her arm for the spider that might've been attached to the web that was there.

"Oh, I'm sorry you couldn't find what you were looking for." Blair said rather snidely as she slithered up to Eyal, nearly knocking Annie down in the process. "But I warned you it wouldn't be easy to find anything down there."

"Yeah," Eyal gave her an irritated frown. "Look, Blair, are you sure you won't allow me to come back and have another look down there?"

Blair shook her head. "I'm sorry, George. Like I told you, until this thing is settled in court, I can't let you or anyone else spend too much time in there. Why if any of my relatives found out that we did this…"

"Yeah, I know." Eyal waved her off as he finished dusting off his jacket and then took Annie's arm.

"Thanks, anyway, Blair. Have a good day."

Annie took a wary look at Blair's suddenly furious face and then over at Eyal's rather amused expression.

"Uh ?" Annie leaning near to Eyal and whispered softly.

"Tell you in the car." He whispered.

"George?" Blair hurried after them. "What about this evening? You promised you'd have dinner with me before the gala." She gave him what she considered to be a provocative smile but to Eyal it looked a little more like a lopsided sneer.

"Oh, yeah." Eyal acted as though he'd just remembered. "I am sorry Blair but I had forgotten about another engagement ." He smiled just before climbing into his car. "I'll call you, we'll make it another time before I leave England, okay." Quickly as he could, Eyal shut the door and locked it, then quickly reversed the Audi and left the grounds of _Trotter Castle_ as rapidly as possible.

When they'd passed through the gates and back out onto the road, Annie looked over at her partner. "Eyal, what was that all about? I mean, I know you don't want to spend time with Blair Vogel and I know we didn't find anything in that basement…"

"Annie," Eyal managed before she caught her breath and continued.

"Well, I mean found all kinds of things, but we didn't find the things or at least the papers we were looking for. Of course with that many boxes, it would be hard to locate the vault and …"

"Annie," Eyal tried again to interrupt her.

"But why did you have that smile on your face?" She gave him a perplexed look, not even aware he had tried to stop her rambling.

Eyal shook his head and his grin widened. "Because, I did find something down there." He said smugly.

"You did?" Annie was suitably impressed. "What? Where is it?"

Eyal's grin faltered a little but it didn't disappear entirely. "It's still down there. Blair was watching us like a hawk and I have an idea she would've insisted on seeing anything we tried to take out of there. My reasoning to Blair for looking was based on an incredibly personal letter received from US President Bill Clinton about the Monica Lewinsky scandal that Malcolm McMillan had stashed away in a file with several love letters written by Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh to Margaret Thatcher, the onetime Prime Minster. Those letters would be worth millions and Blair is as money hungry and man hungry. Our deal was to split the revenue before the relatives knew of the letters."

"Queen Elizabeth's husband and the Iron Lady, clever. So that was your cover, a greedy antique dealer."

"Yeah that and a promise of a little more."

"Don't tell me." Annie half tapped him on his arm in a playful jest. "So what did you see?"

"But that's just it, though." Eyal told her as they sped back towards Crawley and on to London. "I couldn't get a good enough look at it to tell exactly what it did have to do with. But it looked like it could very well be important. And I didn't get the impression that Blair Vogel wanted us to find anything important. In her greedy little mind she will return and search for herself, you know cutting George Yiokas out of the take and keeping the riches for herself."

"That makes for good reasoning. Guess in her mind she is entitled to all the treasures _Trotter Castle_ holds."

"Yeah. Also I think I located the vault, that roll top desk in hiding it."

"Well, what we are going to do then?" Annie asked, suddenly getting a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew unquestionably what he was thinking.

"We're going back." Eyal told her. "Tonight."

"It's Halloween and we have that costume gala to attend, remember my tickets and besides your girlfriend should be there." Annie not wanting to make a return trip after dark.

"Don't remind me."


	4. Halloween

"I don't know why you talked me into this. We know what we have to do and going to this gala isn't one of them." Eyal holding the car door open for Annie. "You just like seeing me squirm like a caught fish."

"Come now Eyal or George whatever, you know we have to make an appearance, you know, carry on the ruse for the sake of keeping Blair happy. If doesn't see you at the gala she will know something is up and she would be right."

"She would only be happy if you vanished and we had that dinner I promised her. Damn Annie can't you for once help me out here."

"You know I will, just need to have a bit of fun away from all the dagger looks I'll receive tonight. If her eyes could kill..."

"Sorry about that." Eyal couldn't take his eyes off Annie dress in her costume and particularly her legs as she climb into the Audi. "You are looking especially jazzy tonight, love the 20's Flappers style - sexy. Nicely put together right on down to the silk stocking with those tiny little arrows on the side."

"And you my friend also looking dashing as the Count of Monte Cristo. Fitting of your shady background - a mystery to be solved." And he did look so very dashing she thought, if only there was more to their relationship, a little more than friendship - stop it Annie. It is the aura of the evening that is play with your dreams of Eyal and she quickly brushed it off.

The grand ball room was filled with costumed party goers, another charity event and this time for the Royal English Society of Arts. All the costumes were expensive as if from a theatrical wardrobe department and beautiful. This being one of the main galas of the year and the only one of the elite masquerade balls held in London. No matter how old one gets they never out grow the desire to play dress-up. A small orchestra providing the music and champagne at every turn. Eyal handing Annie a glass of bubbly as they mingle with the multitude, stopping for small talk and exchange of pleasantries.

"There she is. Your girlfriend in all her glory." Annie pointing out the entrance of Blair Vogel and one nice looking young man.

Eyal looked over to see Blair dress as Persian Princess in a royal blue exquisite costume with detail elaborate gold threads embroider in fine craftsmanship. Her makeup was refined with sophistication using the right amount of dark eye liner and thicker well-shaped eyebrows. Her jewelry reflected the middle-east influence and costly. A delicate head veil finished off the striking outfit. He had not seen her looking so good but yet she was still Blair Vogel - a nymphomaniac.

"Well that young buck should keep her busy tonight." Eyal's only remark.

"You sound a bit jealous."

"Not jealous just relieve she will be too involved to care about us and the McMillan estate. Sure hope he ate a pile of oysters for dinner, he'll need it."

"Don't think I want to hear any more of this. Shall we hit the hors d'oeuvres table before we go? Stock up on some nourishment for midnight meeting with the ghost of _Trotter Castle_." Annie half chuckling.

Leaving the gala around ten and a quick change of clothes, grab their coats and Annie and Eyal were on their way to the southern coast.

"These are delicious." Annie eating some of the hors d'oeuvres she had somehow lifted from the gala and Eyal with a newly opened bottle of champagne - also compliments of the festive gala. To set the mood as if they needed too, Annie started telling some ghost stories she had been told as a child. Eyal with his own additional tales and that is how they entertained themselves for an hour and half drive. A light fog was rolling in by the time they made their way to _Trotter Castle _the old McMillan estate.

"A bit spooky isn't it?" Eyal watching the headlights from his car reflect off the thickening fog. Parking the Audi about a half mile from the estate they set out on foot.

"Eyal," Annie whispered as he led her into the McMillan's back yard and towards the back door. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Eyal looked over at her with an odd expression on his handsome face. "What do you mean? Annie, we need those files, and those files are in this house."

"Yeah, I know. But isn't there some other way? I mean in the daytime?"

"You can't be terrified of the dark, not the Annie I know. Besides I already told you." Eyal fought to keep his voice even and his temperament calm. "Blair Vogel will most likely never let us near this place again if she can help it. We have no other choice but to do it this way. Not to mention that neither Mossad nor CIA has the right to go snooping around in the UK anyway. "

"But this place looks… haunted." She protested, as her brown eyes darted nervously around the yard, noting the too many dark shadows. Has this being Halloween night, one too many slips of bubbly or the ghost stories gotten to the normally calm, cool and collected Annie Walker a bit up tight. Certainly tonight was not the Annie Walker that could risk it all for a mission was having doubts about a vacant old mansion - but it is All-Hallows-Eve when evil spirits and dead souls were to roam aimless about grave yards and vacant buildings haunting those still living. Maybe Annie being a little fallacy.

Eyal stopped and gave her an irritated frown. "Haunted? Annie, there are no such thing as haunted houses and ghosts. This place is just old, that is all. Besides we were in there this morning and nothing happened, did it?"

Reluctantly, Annie shook her head. "No." She didn't want to say anything about hearing piano music but she was sure he had heard it too.

"Well, then nothing will happen tonight. Now, come on, and watch your step once we get in there. Remember how cluttered that place is." Eyal's tone was exasperated but looking around at the desolate looking house and property, he kind of understood what she meant.

Risking another look around the forbidding looking back yard, Annie took the hand Eyal offered her, swallowed hard and followed him to the back entryway. Just as Eyal got the door opened, a howl could be heard coming from somewhere behind them. Both heads jerked up and glanced around but the farther regions of the property were too shrouded in darkness and fog to offer much of a view.

"Just a neighbor's dog." Eyal said, as much to reassure himself as Annie.

"There are no neighbors near here and it didn't sound like any dog I've ever heard."

"It's nothing Neshema, trust me."

"Yeah sure thing oh mister know it all. Trust me as I lead you into the pits of hell."

"Come on Annie get a grip." Eyal giving Annie a reassurance hug, "Nothing is going to happen."

The back door hinges screamed loudly in protest when Eyal pushed the door open and headed in, pulling Annie in behind him. After closing the door, Eyal and Annie clicked on their flashlights and pointed the beams down to illuminate their way towards the basement door.

They had almost reached it, when a cup, sitting across the room on a counter, seemingly flung itself, from its resting place, to the floor, landing unbroken just inches from their feet. Annie gasped as she wildly swung her flashlight around the room, seeing nothing out of place other than the flying cup which now rested innocently on the floor. "Eyal?"

"Oh, Annie," Eyal said as he bent down and picked up the cup and set back on the counter. "It was probably sitting close to the edge and our footsteps caused just enough of a disturbance to push it over."

"Uh, huh." Annie said, not convinced in the slightest. "How come nothing else fell and how come that didn't break?"

"I don't know." Eyal asked in irritation. "Now, come on and stay close."

Following his instructions perfectly, Annie practically glued herself to his back, running into him when he stopped suddenly after taking only three steps down towards the basement.

"Neshema," Eyal looked back at her. "Stay close but not that close."

Annie sighed. "Got it."

Shaking his head, he aimed his flashlight back behind them for a moment, pausing on the counter the cup had been sitting on. He could've sworn he heard something right in that area, but nothing moved and he saw nothing to cause alarm. Deciding it was just Annie making him a little jumpy; he directed his light back down the stairs and started down again.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Eyal waited for Annie to reach his side, and then followed the beam of his flashlight back towards the old desk. They had only taken a couple of steps however, when Annie tugged at the back of his coat.

"Eyal? Do you hear that?"

Eyal stopped, his senses in overdrive, straining to hear anything besides the groaning of an old house in its death throes and Annie's labored breathing. But there was nothing. "Hear what?" He was, by now, getting used to Annie's sometimes, overactive imagination and he realized they were in a spooky old house at night and on Halloween, so he tried to stay patient.

"There's someone upstairs." Annie whispered with a small touch of fear.

Eyal frowned at her and stopped again, listening intently, but he still heard nothing. "Amen…" He stopped when the sound finally reached him. It sounded like… like… almost like… someone walking with a cane. First a solid step, then a sliding noise as though dragging a foot accompanied by a tap as the cane hit the floor.

The footsteps, if footsteps they were, seemed to traverse the floor above from one end of the room to the other. Step, slide – tap. Step, slide – tap. Step, slide – tap. Step, slide – tap. Step, slide – tap.

Looking back at Annie, he understood the frightened look on her face. Pushing her behind him, he pulled his gun and headed back for the stairs. "Stay here."

"Are you kidding?" Annie eyes widened. "Not on your life, Mr. Lavin." She swallowed hard. "Or on mine."

Eyal decided against arguing. She wouldn't stay there anyway, and he knew it. "Stay behind me, then."

As he headed back up the stairs, Annie grabbed a hold of the back of his jacket causing him to stop and look back at her. "Annie."

She let go but she didn't move away. Searching for her gun, the one she had left in the hotel room when she hastily changed clothes. This she would never tell him as he was use to her not carrying a gun.

Eyal cautiously ascended the stairs, pausing just at the doorway. Raising his gun, he threw himself from the doorway into the room above, shining his flashlight around as he did so.

No one was there. No one.

Confused, he stood perfectly still for a few moments while his heart slowed down and he double checked the room. He knew he heard someone walking. It simply couldn't have been his imagination. Deciding who ever it was must have gone to another part of the house; he looked back at Annie and moved silently into the main hallway to search the front parlor.

At first he saw nothing, then something dark caught his eye just at the edge of the room. Raising his gun, once again, he took careful aim and pinpointed the thing with his flashlight, his finger on the trigger. But when the light hit it, he immediately took his finger off of the trigger and lowered his pistol. It was a cat. A large black cat with brilliant green eyes, hissing menacingly at the intruders.

"It's a cat." Eyal took a deep breath. "Just a cat."

But Annie was not inclined to agree with him. "Eyal, I know what I heard and what I heard was not a cat. Besides cats don't make any sounds when the walk. What I heard was a person with a cane and he wasn't in here, he was in the kitchen."

"Annie," Eyal said as patiently as he could. "We were just in the kitchen. No one was there. It had to be the cat. I mean, as big a thing as he is, he probably just sounded like a human from down in the cellar."

"Eyal," Annie rolled her eyes at him. "I know you don't think much of me as an agent…"

"That's because you're only a CIA agent." Eyal pointed out.

"But," Annie ignored the comment, "I do have very good hearing and I heard a man up here. Not a cat."

"How do you know it wasn't a woman?" Eyal asked with a smirk. Now that he knew it'd been a cat making the noise and possibly knocking cups off the counter, he was relaxed enough to tease her.

"Okay," Annie said in exasperation. "A person then. It doesn't matter whether it was male or female but it does matter that is was human, Eyal. It was not a cat."

"Alright." Eyal waved her off. "Then it was a person. But obviously that person is gone and we still need to get those files. Now, are you coming back down with me to get them or would you like to stay up here with the cat and watch for ghosts?"

Annie glared at him, but turned around and headed back for the cellar stairs. "Smart ass." She muttered.

"I heard that." Eyal chuckled as they went back down below.

The cat had remained upstairs and they heard not another sound from it when they returned to the basement. And though they did hear the occasional screech or creak, they attributed that to the age of the house and most likely mice. The only thing that really troubled them was the cold.

Granted, it was late October outside, and the dilapidated old house had no heat, but it still seemed sharply colder in some spots than others. Both of them noticed it but neither of them wanted to speculate on why it was that way. Instead they pulled their coats tighter around them and went to work, doing their best to ignore the noises, the cold and the shadows that seemed alive somehow.

For the next few hours, Eyal and Annie combed the basement, avoiding the boxes they'd looked in earlier that day and concentrating on the area where Eyal had found the one file he now had stuffed in a box along with several others. Twice, Eyal reached for a carton to go through it, only to find another one directly in front of him when he swore it hadn't been there a second earlier.

Both of those cartons contained old newspaper clippings but nothing he was looking for. However, Eyal's instinct told him those clippings could be important as well. Stuffing as many of them as he could into the one box he wanted to take with him, he finally stopped and assessed the situation.

He wanted to look through everything but he knew it would take a lot more time and a lot more man power to do that. Besides, both Eyal and Annie were tired and their flashlight batteries were rapidly growing weak. He had located the vault behind the old desk but it had already been open and empty. Whatever had been in it was long gone.

Annie stretched her back as she leaned over to hand Eyal a thick stack of papers. "Here are some more papers you should look at when we get back to the hotel."

Eyal reached for the papers, but suddenly something small and black flew right between them, causing Annie to shriek and drop the papers to land across the cold damp floor. "What was that?" She asked with a tremor to her voice.

Eyal grabbed his flashlight to shine it around the room but his weakened batteries chose that moment to die leaving them in the faint glow of Annie's flashlight. "Don't suppose you brought any extra batteries, did you?" Eyal asked half in jest.

"Yes, I did," Annie answered as she reached into the small backpack she had brought. In a couple of minutes she had replaced the batteries and switched the flashlight back on with a smile.

Eyal just shook his head. "I should've known." Taking the light from Annie, he turned, slowly illuminating as much of the damp basement as possible, but they saw nothing.

"Hmmm" he muttered. "Well, it was small and it could be anywhere or it could have been nothing. Come on, let's get these papers picked up and then get out of here."

"Yeah," Annie whole heartedly agreed.

As the two bent to the floor, another rush of frigidly cold air brushed against them. Both stopped and looked at each other, but after a second, shrugged and went back to gathering papers. They had just picked up the last piece when the footsteps came again. This time they seemed headed in their direction. Step, slide – tap. Step, slide – tap.

"Eyal?" Annie's voice rose in pitch but lowered in volume.

Hastily shoving the papers in the box, he grabbed it and then swiftly pulled his gun. "Stay behind me." He whispered. Leading the way back to the stairs, he paused when he saw, what he swore, was a light at the top of the stairs. Switching off his flashlight, he turned and handed it to Annie. "Don't move." He told her.

The look on his face, told Annie how very serious he was and for once she listened, briefly anyway.

Grabbing a hold of the banister, Eyal hesitated for just a moment then launched himself up the stairs and onto the top floor. As before the room up above was empty, save for the furniture and the smell of decay. No light, no movement. "Annie," he whispered down the stairs.

"You find anything?" She asked from right behind him, causing him to jump.

"I thought I told you to stay put?" He said irritably.

"You told me not to move." Annie corrected him. "And I didn't, at least for a couple of minutes. But you can't expect me to stay down there alone."

Rolling his eyes, Eyal took the box that Annie had brought up and tucked it under his arm. "Let's just get out of this place, okay?"

Annie nodded and followed Eyal closely, bumping into him again as they turned the corner and he stopped abruptly. Eyal glanced back at her in exasperation then looked around the room. He swore he heard something that sounded like very faint crying. "You hear that?" He asked.

Annie cocked her head and listened intently but heard nothing. "No." She answered. "What am I supposed to be hearing?"

Eyal didn't answer for a moment, hoping he would hear it again and he could identify the source. But the sound didn't come again. "Nothing, I guess." He answered. "Come on."

Annie agreed as she put her backpack around her right arm and started for the door behind Eyal. But before they could take two steps more, something snagged the backpack and pulled back forcefully, causing Annie to stumble backwards and land on her backside on the floor.

Eyal whirled around with his flashlight but saw nothing but Annie on the floor, trying to get back up.

"What happened?" He questioned.

"I don't know." Annie said with a tremor in her voice. "It felt like something grabbed my bag and pulled back on me. Eyal, I want to get out of here."

Eyal nodded in total agreement. "I do too." He said. "Let's go now."

With another glance behind them, Eyal and Annie completed the distance to the door and pulled it open, only to have it pulled from their hands and slam shut. "What the…?"

"Eyal, I don't think this place wants us to leave." Annie uttered with her brown eyes darted around the room.

"Don't be silly, Annie." Eyal shook his head. 'This house is not alive. It's just old and things don't work the way they used to. Here." He handed her the box. "Hold that and I'll get this door opened."

Annie took the box while Eyal turned back to the door, pulling with all his might but it wouldn't budge. "I may have to break a window." Eyal said and pulled his gun to do that just as they once again heard footsteps. This time they seemed to be coming up from the basement below and they weren't the same.

"Eyal?" Annie's distress was clear and Eyal had to admit, he was feeling a little concerned himself.

With his gun in hand, Eyal raised his fist to towards the glass pane of the door but stopped when it suddenly swung open as though to usher them out. Without a backwards glance, Eyal grabbed the box from Annie and the two ran as fast as they could off the grounds of the old house and the half mile back to Eyal's parked car. Where dead souls following them as they ran?


	5. York Connection

Well clear of the McMillan property and as they started their long drive back to London, Annie was quiet, thinking about all that had happen in the old place. Maybe a little too quiet for Eyal's sake as Annie had a tendency of chatting endless when she was trying to figure out something or edgy and by all right she should be jumping out of her skin with nervous.

"Are you okay Neshema?"

"Eyal, I know you don't agree with me but you have to admit that there were some pretty strange things going on in that house tonight." Annie wide awake from all the nerves tingling because of her Halloween cellar tour of a haunted mansion. "I don't believe in ghost but things just don't add up about the footsteps and the extreme cold and I swear that cat..."

"What about cat?"

"Nothing... Just a strange cat that's all." What Annie didn't say was the cat look at her the same way Blair would look at her, with sharpen daggers for stares.

After reaching London, Eyal had wanted to drive Annie back to her hotel but she had refused. She insisted they at least make a start on the box of information they had collected. Though she didn't say it, the truth was, she really didn't want to go back to the hotel alone but stay with Eyal.

So, here they sat in Eyal's hotel room, looking at the papers in front of them and arguing about whether there were ghosts in the house or not.

Eyal took a deep breath and wearily nodded his head. "Okay, yes, I do agree there were some strange things going on, but like I told you, that house is old. There could be any number of reasons for the noises we heard."

"And the door?" Annie prodded. "And the footsteps? And the cat? Thinking about that cat makes me question if it is a stray or someone's pet. The animal looked too well feed to be a stray. Could someone be living there and not wanting us to go snooping around - no, that can't be... The house is in too bad of condition... But again we never looked in the watch tower part of the ..."

"Neshema." Eyal was valiantly trying to hang onto his temper.

Annie recognized the tone and dropped the issue for the moment. Besides, the newspaper clipping she had been looking at was rather interesting. "Eyal, look at this." She handed the paper over to him.

"What?" Eyal asked as he scanned the paper, not seeing anything overly important.

"Right there." Annie pointed at a small article on bottom of the page.

"Malcolm McMillan attends premier of new movie with niece Blair." Eyal read. "Malcolm McMillan and niece Blair were out on the town last night for the premier of the newest movie. '_I promised Blair a night on the town and I'm just keeping my promise.'_ McMillan said."

Eyal looked from the clipping with a confused look on his face. "So, what's so important about this? From what I've heard, McMillan was a publicity hound when he got into political affairs. He liked having his picture in the papers as much as possible."

"Um, huh." Annie nodded as she sat several more clippings down on the table in front of Eyal. "He sure did. And just about every time, he had his niece Blair with him. I mean there are no pictures of her with her mother, but plenty with him."

Eyal looked down at the different clippings and saw a much younger Blair in almost all of them. "So?" He shrugged. "McMillan loved his niece. I mean he never had kids of his own so apparently he showered her with his affections."

"That would work," Annie said, "except he didn't like kids."

Eyal gave her a confused look. "What do you mean he didn't like kids? How do you know how he felt about kids?"

Annie placed another clipping in front of him. It was interview he had given when he was just starting out in politics. Eyal quickly scanned the article, stopping on a paragraph near the end. "To be honest," Malcolm McMillan told this reporter, "I'm not cut out to be a family man. Children and I don't often get along."

Eyal sat thoughtfully for a moment but finally shook his head. "This interview was done when he was young, Annie." He told her. "Just because he felt that way then, doesn't mean he couldn't have changed his mind. Besides, what's the significance of all this? I mean, all we're looking for is anything McMillan may have squirreled away down in his basement that could lead to an agent, which we haven't found that information as yet. We don't care whether he liked kids or not."

"I know, Eyal." Annie nodded, a little frustrated. "But that's not all. There are also clippings here about Blair's wedding and her husband's death, which by the way was suspicious according to some of these. Look here's a picture of her and him on their wedding day. Boy, you weren't kidding when you said he was a lot older than her. I mean these papers contain just about anything you could possibly want to know about Blair and Deputy Chief of Defense McMillan, but only about them. There's nothing in here about Blair's mother or dad or…"

"Well, Annie, that's not really unusual." Eyal tried to stop her rambling. "I mean the newspaper usually only covers major events and people. They'd have no reason to mention Blair's parents."

Annie sighed as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Well, maybe you're right. But I can't help but feel there is something important about this. I mean, didn't you say that that box of clippings kept getting in your way? What if the ghost wanted us to find it? What if…"

"Ghost?" Eyal's eyebrows rose sharply. "Neshema, I told you there are no such things as ghosts. These clippings were just there. No ghost shoved them in my hands. Besides, they're unimportant. They won't help us get what we came after. What will help, we haven't found so far. Those papers I found weren't what I thought they were. They are interesting but not what we needed. Neither were those newspaper clippings."

"Then why did you take them?" Annie asked pointedly.

"Well…" Eyal stopped. Truth was; he didn't know why he'd taken them. Something had just impressed him to do so. But looking at Annie's arched brow, tilted head and smirk, he was determined he wasn't going to tell her that.

"It doesn't matter." He said as he pushed back from the table and got up. "Look, Annie, it's late and we're both tired. Sun should be coming up soon, what do you say, I take you back to your hotel and we finish looking through all of this tomorrow, huh I mean later today.

Wearily, Annie nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I am a little tired. Tell you what, I'll meet you at the _Blackpatch Pub_ for lunch early tomorrow afternoon and we'll finish going through all of this stuff then. Think I might be sleeping in a little late." Annie with heavy eye lids and yawns.

Eyal smiled. "Good, plan."

After Eyal dropped her off, Annie trudged into her room. She was exhausted but something kept nagging at her. There was something in those clippings but her tired mind just couldn't figure out what it was. Shaking her head, she quickly changed into her pajamas and slipped into bed, asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

When Eyal returned to his hotel room, he too was tired but what Annie said kept bothering him. Something about… Dropping his jacket on the back of the chair, Eyal stood looking at the pile of papers on the table. Suddenly a thought came to him. Going over to the coffee maker, he started a fresh pot of coffee and then went back to the table. He thought he just might know what he was looking for.

When Annie arrived at the _Blackpatch Pub_ later that afternoon Eyal met her with a big smile and Annie quickly guess he has found something. Annie looked over at Eyal. "What did you find?"

Eyal nodded as he got up as she walked to the table and handed her the file he had been looking at. "Remember those clippings we were looking at last night?"

Annie nodded as she opened the file and began to look at the papers inside. "Um, huh."

"Well, I got to thinking about them and some of the things you said, so I dove into that box again when I got back to the hotel last night. And then this morning I did a little more checking on Blair Vogel and her uncle and her husband. I'm still not ready to say that a ghost helped us last night, but I do believe the information we found will."

Annie didn't respond as she read the scant information in the file before looking up at Eyal with confusion.

"I don't understand. This is about Malcolm McMillan and some woman named Anna, what little there is of it. What does this have to do with Blair Vogel and getting us access to that house?"

"It has to do with leverage. I checked all available data on Anna Golubev. There isn't much known about her. She was born in 1945 to Russian immigrant parents and went to work for Malcolm McMillan's family as a maid in 1962. In 1964 McMillan started his law practice and he moved to a flat in London and took Anna with him. After that there's really no official mention of her anywhere."

Instead of clearing things up for Annie, Eyal's little background on Anna Golubev left her even more confused. "I'm sorry, Eyal." Annie shook her head. "But I still don't understand."

"It's simple, Annie." Eyal spoke as he handed her a small book with a latch on it.

Annie looked down to see a diary. The name on the front was Anna Golubev. Opening to a page that was marked, she read an entry that claimed… "Malcolm McMillan was Blair Vogel father and Anna was her mother?"

"Well, not officially. At least not anywhere but in that diary. On all official transcripts, Blair Vogel is the daughter of Mae McMillan Stewart and her deceased husband Montgomery Stewart. Of course I can't find anything on Montgomery Stewart before or after he supposedly married Mae who died about ten years ago of a heart attack. And Anna disappeared completely after Blair was born. I don't know how McMillan did it, but somehow he managed to hide every trace of Anna other than that diary. But it doesn't change the truth. Blair Kristine Vogel is McMillan daughter not his niece."

Annie's mind now working in high gear, "And unless I miss my guess, her husband found out about it. Probably why he married her. Figured he could use that information to get McMillan to throw lots of classified intel his way, there by becoming an unwilling spy for Russia."

"Only it didn't work for but for a few years. McMillan life seemed to take a turn for the unscrupulous side, hoards of women and he later became deep into gambling and it wasn't long before he left office in scandal." Eyal still filling in the blanks.

It was now making even more sense to Annie. "So that's what you meant by leverage? You think if we tell Blair Vogel that we know who her real mother and father were, she'll grant us full access to search that house completely?"

"Well, not exactly." Eyal sighed. "Blair Vogel' doesn't intimidate easily. It'd take more than what we currently have to get her to help us anymore than she already has. But I think there's more to this. I want us to go talk to anyone, you think, might be able to give you the lowdown on Blair Vogel and her 'uncle'."

"Like who?" Annie asked with a frown. "Not too many people have too much to do with her and those who do are usually too afraid to say much either for or against her."

"Not if you talk to the right people. Blair Vogel has maids and gardeners and other employees that I'm sure could tell you plenty if you approach them right and you have that knack."

"Where should I start?"

"A trip to see her live-in maid at the Chelsea flat and then the summer place in Dorchester. I know there are several employees there."

"And what about you? What are you going to be doing?"

"Headed back to Seaford and snoop around more, maybe have a talk with the caretaker, what was his name... Oh yeah, Busby Ferguson, I'm sure he knows plenty. May have another look around the old place I'm still looking for the documents pertaining to Russian double agents and any other agent information. You know that was our mission in the first place."

"Then why to do I have to go to Dorchester if you going back in the house."

"Leverage. He own another house in York, England that no one has searched as all attention has been on his coastal estate and the London home place."

"I never heard of the York house. How do you know about it?"

"Privileged information I found out back with my previous time with Blair. The home he inherited from his mother who was from York. The home is listed in his mother's name and later transferred to Blair Stewart but she seldom goes there. Hates the place for some reason."

"You want me to check out the York homestead, see what information I can find."

"With you persuasive way yeah, go talk with the distance cousin that lives there and see what you can find. Her name is Susan Matthews and she is a fifth or sixth cousin to Malcolm McMillan on his mother's side of the family. Blair didn't seem to like her for some reason and could be why she doesn't go to York often."

"Fine, I'm on my way. See you back here in a couple of days." Annie getting up from the table not really wanting to go but she must, it was also part of her mission and with both of them working together, unofficially, would mean getting the job done faster.

"Wait a second Annie."

Annie turning, "What?" Only to see Eyal had stood and was very close to her. He effortlessly took her face in both of his large hands and gave her a sweet gentle kiss. Automatically her hands moved to his side and she returned the kiss.

"Hope I didn't step out of line but been wanting to do that ever since you landed here in England."

"Not at all out of line, I enjoyed it."

And with that Eyal took it as an invitation to once more kiss her, this one a bit more deeply and holding her close to him. She feeling the warmth of his body and responded with passionate kiss, then slowly stepped back with her hand on his arm. With a loving smile place two fingers to her lips and then to his lips just before she turned to leave. Eyal watched as she walked out of sight, '_Yeah'_ he thought, _'he made the right move and now had to wait until her return'._

* * *

><p>Annie's first stop, York and a friendly chat with Susan Matthews. York, England is one of the most fascinating and historical places to visit, dating back to medieval period and the occupation of the Romans. The city is known as the wall city because of the miles of ancient walls built to protect the inhabitants during many different advances throughout history. Three main gateways lead into the old city where Susan Matthew's home is near the Bootham Bar (one of the gateways). The name "bar" refers to the simple bars which were leveled across the gates to restrict traffic in and out of the city. The bars also acted as toll booths during the medieval period.<p>

Annie finding the house located in the older city and was shocked at the simplicity of the row type home. Maybe she was expecting a grand mansion or at least the chic of the homes Blair seem to process but his house gave a warm friendly welcome feeling. Annie standing at the door noticed a black cat sitting on the window sill, quietly purring and watching her, certainly not the monster of a cat she had encountered at the old castle. The sun shown in shades of deep purple on his solid black coat and beautiful gold color eyes, slowly blinked at Annie. "And what is your name?" speaking softly to the cat.

"Geoffrey Chaucer but we call him Geoffrey and he only answers when he is hungry." A young woman appeared in the open door with a bright smile.

"The author of _The Canterbury Tales_ how clever." Annie turning away from her conversation with the cat to see Susan Matthews. "I'm Annie Walker, we spoke over the phone."

"Yes of course. I'm Susan and please come in."

The interior reflected the sociable pleasant nature of it occupant with cheerful colors of light gold almost a wheat color and piles of rose, pink, lavender and creams to rich deep reds much like walking through a rose garden.

"Please have a seat and would you like a cup of tea? I have some already brewed."

"Thank you kindly, yes that would be nice."

Friendly chatting over tea before Annie got to the reason for her visit. "As I explained over the phone, I'm with the United States government investigating a report concerning national security of both my country and the UK. While there is still little proof of the existence of a file containing certain documents we still have to investigate and follow all leads to the end."

"Yes I'm sure and how my I help?"

"Malcolm McMillan once lived here and it is believed he may have hidden this file some place within this house."

"The house is in his mother's family ... uh my family and yes he stayed here quite often. I had the place refurbished not long ago, electrical and plumbing and some walls removed and during that renovation there was nothing found. However the attic hasn't been touched in years, I hate going up there, strange but it gives me the creeps."

"If you don't mind, I would like to have a look around your attic."

"You are welcome to have a look about." Susan standing, "This way."

Susan leaving Annie alone in the attic to search for whatever she could find and as she look around there were the usual things one might expect to find in an attic. Two old trunks, a broken chair and old dresser with missing handles. A few boxes, a wooden crate of old toys, certainly once belonging to Malcolm and several family pictures all frame and hanging from beams. There in a corner, behind a dressmakers form Annie found a crudely made cabinet with two locks. Lock picking may not be one of greatest skills but with enough time she picked both locks. There inside the cabinet was a metal box with another lock, Annie was being put to the test. Again she picks the lock and this one was reasonably easy. Bingo, inside the metal box was three brown envelopes all neatly tied with cord and a wax seal on the knot. Not touching the envelops but picking up the box, Annie returned to the main floor where Susan was waiting.

"I think I have found what we are looking for. I need to call in some of Briton's officials and have them give you a receipt for the box."

"By all means." Susan didn't want anything that could be of national security stay in her home. Her face now showed concern and couldn't help but ask the pressing question on her mind. "Could I be in any trouble for have that box?"

"Not at all. You had nothing to do with hiding this box." Annie reassured her as she made the call to MI6, CIA and Mossad, the last being extremely covert.


	6. Just a Few More Days

Standing next to the Vauxhall Bridge in London and looking at the large MI6 building on the River Thames, Annie trying to block the noise of traffic with one hand over her ear and listening prudently on her cell phone as she and Joan Campbell chatted. Annie wanted to buy herself a few more days in England - two reasons a good mystery and Eyal Lavin.

"A few more days Joan before I can wrap this up. The good people here at _Bond's House_ (nickname for MI6) have more questions of me and ..."

"That is typical of them. So you think there are more documents hidden my McMillan?" Very suspicious minded as usual, Joan knew Annie was up to more but not sure of what.

"I am sure of it and a few more days to be positive and confident we have found them all would be worth the effort." Annie wanting Joan approval to stay longer in England even though she was going to do it anyway, buck protocol - the Annie's way.

"Okay Annie... Oh by the way do you have any idea how Mossad found out about the file hidden in the York home." Now Joan was nearly ninety percent sure Eyal was involved and not totally trusting Annie to come clean. Too many times in the past had Eyal and Annie run their missions together and with both the CIA and Mossad benefiting but still...

"None."

"Have you seen Eyal Lavin?" Joan with a mordant tone to her remark knowing he could be working with Annie or watching her. "He has a way of popping up in the most unsuspected places."

"Like a ghost, yeah I know but haven't seen me lately." It was a half truth because Annie hadn't seen him in two days.

"Alright Annie but don't stay to long and watch yourself now that MI6 is aware of you being in the UK. Don't want to ruffle any feathers with our allies."

Well one hurdle crossed, as Annie disconnected from her conversation with Joan. There was one more meeting with the MI6 investigating team and she was finish with them. Anxious to get back with Eyal and back to the mystery that was starting to unfold with Blair Vogel and it really peak her interest in uncovering the hidden secrets that the skeletal of a sorceress was harboring. _'Skeletal! - Sorceress!'_ Annie had to laugh; she is even thinking Halloween in her description of Blair.

Later that night, Annie had showered and now relaxing in her hotel room, going over the notes she had made and trying to figure out what all the pieces they had collected really meant. Something Susan Matthews had said kept creeping back in her mind.

_'Mae McMillan and her brother would fight all the time as children. They didn't like each other.' _

Annie had to question the reason why if Mae McMillan Stewart didn't like Malcolm why would she allow her daughter Blair known to the public see so much of him or even why she would agree to becoming the mother of her brother's child. Too many questions and didn't add up.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone, "Neshema." Came Eyal's voice, "How about a late night drink and some information."

"Perfect. Where are you?"

"In the pub next to your hotel. I'll order a pint for you unless you want a cocktail."

"The English ale will be fine. See you in a jiffy." Annie excited about seeing Eyal again and wonder what information he had found. She quickly dressed in jeans and bulky knit sweater, pull her hair in a pony tail and a touch of perfume, she was ready.

Sitting in a back booth waiting for Annie, Eyal also wanting to see her. Their last parting was the start of something he desiring to take further but would move cautiously, absolutely not wishing to upset their bond of trust and friendship. He looked up to see her enter, a beautiful down to earth looking Annie the he so adored.

"Hey Neshema." Eyal standing seeing Annie enter the pub and finding him. "You are all smiles and I know why."

"Why?" Annie with her mixed smile of sweetness and devilish.

"Mossad is impressed with the intel found in the York house and questing how they received the tip. Thanks Annie, I appreciate that." Eyal giving her a tender kiss on the side of her cheek. A welcome and thank you kiss.

"You would have done the same."

"Perhaps."

"On come Eyal, I know you better than that, that's how we have worked since the intel exchange from that watch deal back in Washington." Annie reaching for the pint of dark ale Eyal had waiting for her.

"You're right. Now down to business. My first stop after you left for York was to find some of McMillan's contemporaries, find out more of his earlier background. There is a mystery here I can't let go of."

"Funny, I feel the same way. Some deep dark secret is being covered up and maybe there is just enough detective intuition in me to want to find that secret."

"Or secrets. I believe there are more than just one secret and that Blair Vogel is right there square in the center." Eyal taking a sallow of his brew, "Anyway, I went in search of anyone that may have known McMillan as a younger man and found several of his colleagues. Our Deputy Chief of Defense Malcolm McMillan was not a well-liked man. I found very few of his colleagues who had anything good to say about him. Most of it had nothing to do with what we wanted to know about, but one man, retired businessman by the name of Wilkinson did have something interesting to say. He was a former business manager of the law firm where McMillan worked before he went into politics full-time."

"Oh?" Annie's ears perked up.

"Well, he said in mid-1965, right around the time Blair Vogel was born, McMillan suddenly turned up missing for a week or more. He didn't show up in his office or anywhere else. They couldn't reach him by phone and when someone went to his flat, it was locked up tight as a drum with no sign of anyone being there for a while."

Annie tilting her head to one side and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Well, that's strange alright, just to disappear without letting anyone know at work but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, this Wilkinson said when McMillan finally did show back up, he announced that his sister had just had a little girl and would be moving in with him. He said that he'd gone to get her and that was why he had left so suddenly."

"Now that is also weird. Susan Matthews told me that McMillan and his sister Mae hated each other and as children would fight all the time. But the birth thing does explain his disappearance." Annie shrugged. "What about this woman Anna? I mean she was living there as well, wasn't she?"

"Supposedly." Eyal answered. "But after Mae and Blair moved in, Anna wasn't seen again. The good Mr. Wilkinson said that he'd been over to McMillan's flat many times and could remember seeing her many times after she moved into McMillan's place. He couldn't recall seeing her at all in the 6 months or so prior to Blair Vogel's birth. And he never saw her after Blair was born."

"Giving validly to Anna Golubev as the real mother of Blair. But what happen to Anna?"

"My thinking also. Decided to check records and you know how much I hate pushing paper around but did it anyway." Eyal looked at her with a smirk. "It's not what I found, it's closer to who I didn't find."

Annie rolled her eyes at Eyal. "Okay, I'll bite. So what did you find, or didn't find?"

"Anna Golubev supposedly left town right before Malcolm McMillan moved his sister and new baby in. Only the rumor was that she didn't leave on her own steam. I talked to an elderly woman by the name of Hester Franham who worked for McMillan's next door neighbor at the same time Anna was working for McMillan."

"Go on, it is sounding interesting."

"It just so happens, Mrs. Franham wouldn't talk to me at first." Eyal cut his eyes at her. "She wouldn't even let me in the room, so I had to pull out the Annie Walker charming empathy way and it worked. Guess a bit of you has rubbed off on me."

"Catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

"Smarty pants. Anyway, the way this woman tells it, Malcolm McMillan was determined to have Anna, only Anna wasn't cooperating."

"Are you saying he forced her?" Annie asked. Only a few things surprised her, things of this nature did upset her. Annie shook her head at the thought of it.

"Well, maybe. According to Mrs. Franham, Anna seemed uncomfortable around McMillan but she never actually said why."

"Well, why didn't she just leave?" Annie thought the solution a simple one.

"Because," Eyal answered. "Anna was a poor child of immigrants who had no money and no place to go. Mrs. Franham seemed to think that Anna was afraid of him. So anyway, she stayed. At least for a while. But Mrs. Franham said she seldom saw her about five or six months before Blair was born and never saw her again afterwards. But the few times she did see her, Anna look to be gaining weight."

"After I talked to Mrs. Franham and a few others I starting combing all available records for Anna. But Anna Golubev can't be found on any official records of any kind after Blair was born. Her national insurance number has never been used for work and there are no records anywhere of her marrying anyone or even of her death."

"What are you saying, Eyal? You don't think he killed her?" Annie's brown eyes widened at the thought.

"I don't know." Eyal answered with a shrug as he leaned against back of the booth. "Maybe, or maybe she died trying to have the baby - who knows."

"You got any ideas of how to find out which?" Annie asked, folding her arms across her chest.

Eyal shook his head with a sigh. "No. Everything I found out is just basically hearsay. We can't prove any of it and even if we could, what good is it? If McMillan did murder Anna, he's beyond punishment now. The man is dead."

"Don't tell me all of this was for nothing." Annie shook her head in irritation.

"Not so fast Neshema. I made a second trip to Seaford and _Trotter Castle_. Check back with that local talkative shopkeeper we had spoken to before. Remember she had said that Blair had live at _Trotter Castle_ as a child."

"Yeah and as I remember she called Blair a strange one, marched to a different drummer."

"Mae and the daughter move in when the child was about two years old with a house full of servants. The little Blair had a nanny, not just one nanny but a steady stream of nannies and none of them staying long. When Blair was old enough to start school she was packed off to a boarding school in Scotland only spending her summers at _Trotter Castle_. Once she reached her teens and during summer holidays she would travel throughout Europe with a hired companion."

"So much for Mae becoming the mother figure."

"Mae had her own set of problems - drinking and drugs according to the shopkeeper. Mae Steward was a woman to be pitied, stayed by herself and only came into town two or three times a year. At first the good women of Seaford would try to visit with Mae but were turned away."

"Malcolm had some hold over his sister but what?"

"Another part of the mystery Annie. Anyway, after Mae died and Blair married Jordon, they would come to _Trotter Castle_ for holidays and stay several weeks at a time. McMillan would also come and stay with them and always brought a lady friend with him, a different one each time."

"Small town knowledge runs deep. Nothing else butter to do... huh..."

"So right you are Neshema. Also I found Busby Ferguson."

"Good, did he have more information to add?"

"Didn't speak with him but did follow him on one of his lawn maintenance trips to _Trotter Castle_. Bizarre what a yard man will take with him."

"What do you mean - bizarre."

"Boxes of staples, food and other supplies all delivered to the watch tower section of the place."

"Hot damn I knew it. Someone is living in that watch tower but who." Annie almost dancing with excitement as what she had suspected was true.

"Well are you going to tell me I told you so?" Eyal himself taking pride in Annie's deduction and being right.

"No, don't think I will but I'll just sit over here and gloat... Who could be living there and does Blair know it?"

"Now that is the mystery." Eyal finishing with his pint and ordering two more. "I have an idea and are you gamed for a little play acting."

"Damn right."

"Great but first, we have to find out who is living and hiding in the watch tower and then get help from that person. I have a suspicion who is living there and another idea why." Eyal's twinkle in his eyes settled on Annie, "And I know of no better person to convince him to help us with our ruse."

"Oh my it sounds exciting. Read me in on your planned scheme Eyal."


	7. Nice to Meet a Ghost

Ominous cloud cover, misty and threatening rain the next morning, a horrific day to be driving south toward Seaford. The windshield wipers keeping slow time to whipping away the fine falling rain, a good day to stay in bed and not be headed back to a haunted mansion but that is unquestionably what Eyal and Annie were doing - going to find the ghost that haunted _Trotter Castle_.

"We are driving right into a storm." Annie could see the dark clouds rolling in and flashes of lighting in the distance.

"Could be a fast moving one and we'll drive through it. At any rate we are on a mission to find your ghost." With a matter of fact tone to his voice, Eyal keeping his eyes on the road.

"My ghost. You heard it too."

"I don't believe in ghost or spooks, there is an answer for everything that happen out there and we are going to get to the bottom of this obscurity."

"Guess that what makes you a good spy, search for the truth." Annie looking at Eyal as his eyes were focus on the road ahead. She could picture him as Sherlock Holmes with a pipe and very British looking Windsor cap made of Welsh wool - yeah her super detective uncovering clues and solving the hardest mysteries. Did that make her Dr. Watson? Nope.

"Makes us Annie, makes us good spies and you have the strongest determination to find the truth." Eyal turning the windshield wipers a notch higher as the rain begin to fall in earnest.

"Yeah super spies huh... Like 007."

"I'm no James Bond." Eyal corrected her quickly with a stout unemotional tone.

"As you say." Annie turning her head looking at the storm they had driven into, the pounding rain, thunder and flashing of lighting made her shaver a bit. She wasn't afraid but for sure she didn't cherish being on the road during such a heavy down pour. Switching her mind off the storm and to Eyal - oh yeah he is the Ian Fleming living in real life 007. James Bond the player and incredible spy of many talents.

"What are you thinking Neshema?" Eyal breaking Annie's thoughts about comparing Eyal to 007.

"Not much, just kind-of watching the storm and wonder what or who we'll find."

"Some answers I hope." Eyal never taking his eyes off the road.

Annie again looking at Eyal and once more start her muse. He is an unapologetic ladies man, a player who enjoyed the company of beautiful women but was that about to change? They were on the verge of taking their relationship to the next level. Yeah he had his faults, Eyal processes a quick tempter express in verbal Hebrew cursing and once finish with his eruption, Eyal was quick to returned to matters at hand in a rational manner - being angry for any length of time was not his nature. But he had his good qualities too, he is caring, kindhearted to only a few but stills holds respect for others as long as they don't cross his path. He can be ruthless and cunning and in a split second become a charming, humors person. At times she could be angry with him and at times love him but he is a man of mystery, never allowing his inner feelings be known and she was starting to have deep feelings for this Israeli.

"Yeah on all accounts." Annie not realizing she had uttered those words softly aloud.

"What... Didn't hear what you said."

Annie quickly recovering her thoughts, "I said yeah to finding answers. Just thinking about all of it and we have more questions than who is living in the watch tower."

"Still think Blair is right in the middle of all of it. She knows a lot more than being said. I still have a big problem with Jordon Vogel's reported death, something isn't adding up there. The plane wreckage was found but no body. I saw pictures of the wreckage and the seat belt wasn't fasten and the throttle was push in to full power with the flaps still up. Now if the plane was going down with a pilot on board the person would try to slow down the decent, not speed it up."

"You saying the plane crash was staged."

"That is what the investigators at Mossad believe. The scenario around HQ is Vogel staged his own death and is now in Russia very much alive and well."

"You think Blair might know this? What part would she have played?"

"Another unanswered question. Well we are here and in one piece. How about a bite to eat before we head out _Trotter Castle_?" Eyal stopping the car beside a little restaurant/pub just as they entered Seaford.

"Think we missed breakfast didn't we? I'm famished."

Finding the restaurant a cozy homey type place with pictures of different buildings of Seaford and festivals from years pasted gracing the walls. A long bar to the back of the room with stools and one man there eating a meal. Pale green table clothes and each table hosted a tiny vase of autumn color flowers.

"A hot cup of coffee or tea is what you folks need on a day like this." The greeting from a stout woman with salt and pepper curly hair cut short and rosy cheeks. She showing Annie and Eyal to a table to one side of the restaurant. "You good folks need a menu?"

"Yes to the cup of coffee and we would like to eat, what do you suggest?"

"A hardy full brunch would be in order. Take the nib of chill out. I get you the coffee and menu." The woman heading to speak with another customer and then into the kitchen, returning immediately with two mugs, a pot of coffee and menus.

"The full Monty will suit us just fine." Eyal looking up from the menu. "It has enough to keep us going for hours." He was laughing by this time.

"That is a lot to eat Eyal. Think I have a half Monty, cut out the baked beans." Annie also chucking at the choices on the menu.

Brunch ordered, poached eggs, back bacon, grilled tomatoes and fried mushrooms with fried bubble and squeak and baked beans added for Eyal. A real hardy meal indeed with a plate of fried bread with butter and jam to share. The food was surly filling and tasty as Eyal and Annie enjoyed the down home British traditional cuisine.

"Pardon me sir." A tall older man approached Eyal and Annie's table.

"Yes may I help you?" Eyal looking up at the gentleman.

"I hate to disturbed your meal but I think you would like to speak with me at some point. I'm Busby Ferguson"

Eyal reaching his hand toward Busby in a friendly manner, "Yes you are right. I would like to speak with you, please take a seat."

"Thank you. I understand you have an interest in the old _Trotter Castle_." Busby sitting in a chair between Annie and Eyal.

"More in the owner of the estate. Blair Vogel." Eyal nodding to the gentleman.

"I hear it is tired in a lengthily court battle with the relatives all wanting the fair share." Busby motioning for a cup of tea.

"That's true. What do you know about the place."

Shaking his head in thanks for the hot tea to the woman who had severed them. "It is haunted or that's what the people around here are saying."

"We don't believe in ghost. There is a reason for the rumors and I think you know the full reason." Eyal continued as Annie listened.

"Maybe so but I would recommend you to stay clear."

"That isn't going to happen. Now you can help us and before you answer I have seen your trip with boxes of food and supplies to the castle."

"Spying on me now were you?"

"I was going to the same place you were heading but only in front of me. Decided to let it be for the time being. My question is who is paying you to keep up the yard work and bring supplies and I know for a fact it isn't Blair Vogel." Eyal leaning a tad close to Busby and looking him square in the eyes.

"You and the misses are not going to let this drop are you?"

"No we are not. Both of us are government agents and it is our job and we need your co-operation." Annie added, thinking it was time to pull out the all the stops if Busby Ferguson was going to be of any help or hindrance.

"Knew it would come to this sometime. Three years now it has been going on."

"What has been going on for three years?" Annie asked.

"Well if you must see for yourselves I should be the one to take you there. Hate to have your blood on my hands."

"That my friend will not happen. Yes thank you for offering to take us to meet this ghost of _Trotter Castle_."

By the time Eyal and Annie had followed Busby Ferguson to the McMillan estate the rain had slowed to a steady ground soaking drizzle. A faint ray of sun light trying to break through the clouds gave an eerie feel to the low hanging misty fog sounding the stone watch tower. Busby slowly opens the main door, a well oil door without any squeaking and yelling out to identify his presence. "It's only me. Busby." He shout again. Stopping to listen but no sound.

They entered a round room with a stone floor, an old oak table flank by two chairs in the Jacobean style giving the mood of real Gothic interior. On the wall hung four carved sets of Cloak of Arms, Trotter - Matthews - McMillan - Delaney.

"I feel like I'm stepping into the circle of the knights of King Arthur and the Table Round." Annie looking at a tapestry of a rendition of the _Lady of the Lake_ of medieval literature, also hanging on the wall facing the oak table. "The Cloak of Arms are they family arms?"

"All family arms and all have a sordid history. Come now to the second floor." Busby leading them to the stone spiral stairway encircling the inter walls of the watch tower.

The second floor room also open and round was clean, free of any cobwebs and furnished with nice period furniture in the Chippendale style and a few more modern pieces. A comfortable looking room but the walls were absent of any decorations.

"We wait here and not go any further up." Busby offering Annie a seat.

The two men were looking out a narrow slit of a window at the English Channel beyond and as Annie watch she felt something move and as quickly as she felt the sensation and cold hand rested on her shoulder. With a shrieking scream she jumped to her feet at the same time Eyal turned with the once concealed gun in his hand. A split second later Annie also held a gun.

"What the hell." Annie looking at the man who just scared the life out of her.

"Don't shot I'm unarmed... Please let us talk." The man with a raspy voice holding his one good arm in the air, a cane in hand. "Look Busby call me to say you were government agents and on your way out here. I'm tired of hiding and now willing to go quietly.

"Jordon Vogel I presume." Eyal with a low calm voice and slowing lowing his gun.

"That's right."

"You are alive?" Annie with her questing glance at Eyal as she spoke.

"Yes but barely. Please put your gun down it makes me nervous. My I ask your names."

"Eyal Lavin with Mossad and this is Anne Walker with the CIA."

"Not British police... That is surprising. I would have thought MI6 or Scotland Yard would be the one to find me."

As Jordon Vogel took several steps toward a chair and Annie recalled the same sound - Step, slide - tap, the footsteps she had heard on Halloween night, the night in the so called haunted mansion. "You were the one making those strange sounds and making things flying about."

"Busby and I invented the haunted story to keep people away and up until now it has worked. Treasurer seekers believing there is buried expensive jewelry and gold stashed here by Malcolm McMillan."

After Jordon had taken a seat, followed by Busby and then Annie and last Eyal. About that time a large black cat with piercing green eyes joined them as he jumped onto Vogel's lap wanting his head rubbed.

"Your pet huh..." Annie looking at Vogel and then at Eyal, "Told you the cat look too well feed to be a stray."

Eyal didn't acknowledge Annie's remark but just looked at the frail old man sitting there holding his pet cat. Jordon Vogel had lost the use of one arm and showed signs of a broken ankle unset and other impairments as if he had been badly beaten. His left eye was glazed over, Eyal guess going blind also noticing the thinning snow-white hair and the raspy sound when he breathed. Jordon Vogel was no threat but an old man in deteriorating health. There was a long lull, and eerie period of stillness before Eyal spoke.

"You are a dead man by all accounts and from what I can see something terrifying has happened to you. You were never in that plane, am I right?" Eyal leaning back in his chair and resting his gun on one leg.

"No. That plane crash was staged and I'm sure you already know that. It was Blair's doing to cover up what happened. I read about my memorial service in the newspaper and the grieving widow. What a lie she portrayed. The only person Blair ever love was Blair."

"We know a little about your background and your marriage to Blair Stewart but we have the time now to hear your side of the story." Annie slipping her gun back into her jacket pocket and out of sight. "Why are you living here... I mean in hiding?"

"I should start from the reason I am in England in the first place. During WWII I was born in German and soon found myself living under Soviet rule in East Berlin. Now my family had position and title which no longer matter in today's Germany but to Blair it was the key to her entrance into British elite upper class. I am the tenth Earl of Kleinbruck where upon my marriage to Blair she became Lady Vogel. Once the Berlin wall came down and Germany was unified I join the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND for short - the Federal German Intelligence Service and was quickly routed back to East Berlin and some connections with the Soviet Intelligence Agency. I was recruited by the KGB and found myself working as a double agent."

"For German or Russia?"

"Both I'm sorry to say. Might say I had divided loyalty. Well to continue, Malcolm McMillan came on the KGB's radar as a person of interest to turn for the benefit of Russia and my assignment was to get close to him. That part was easy, his niece Blair Stewart was a social climber and wealth seeker and I fit the bill even though I was twenty some odd years older than her. Things moved along nicely between Blair and myself and she not being the most attractive woman walking it was uncomplicated and before I realized what happen I had proposed to her. The wedding was an elaborate affair and very high profile which didn't set to well with the KGB and I was put on a tight leash."

"With your marriage to Blair did you finally turn McMillan?" Annie questioning.

"Not at first. Only after I found out the family's dark secret. Blair wasn't McMillan niece but his daughter. He had just become Deputy Chief of Defense for the UK and any breath of scandal would destroy not only him but Blair and I used the knowledge to my advantage. He turned out to be a wealth of great intel that I was feeding to both Russia and Germany."

"For how long did the flow of intel go on?" Eyal asked.

"Several years but McMillan starting feeling the pressure and in time he started... shall we say womanizing and pickup up a bad gambling habit. Wasn't long after that Blair also started following in her father's food steps, gambling and one affair after another. Not real sure how Scotland Yard found out McMillan was feeding government information to a Russian agent but he was arrested and within two days murdered."

"They never connected you as the Russian agent he was talking with." Annie intensely listen to Jordon's story and it was believable.

"They question me yes but found another source, a low-level employee in the Defense Department as a mole and arrested him. I was lucky on that one."

Annie was taking the lead on interrogating Vogel with Eyal's blessing. "So after McMillan's death your mission was over and you could return to German but chose to stay, why?"

"Maybe by that time I had grown to love Blair or maybe I was a bit too comfortable in my British life style." He paused looking away, contemplating what he should tell next and decided the truth would be the best. "Guess the real reason was another woman in my life, one I had been seeing for a little over a year."

"Love have strange effects on men's thinking processes." Eyal with a quip and Annie shot him a glare to piped it down. But Eyal continued. "But there was another reason wasn't it?"

"Think you know since you asked, yes there was. Anyway for the next two years Blair was quite busy trying to overcome her father scandal which gave me the opportunity to really get close to the woman I was seeing. An Israeli living in London with a brother who was with the Israeli embassy in intelligence information exchange with MI6."

"What was your leverage there?"

"Money. Pure and simple hefty payments for intel. Instead of hiding the new found wealth he spend it openly which caused Mossad to send in an agent or two. I can't be sure but I think it was a Mossad agent that Blair had an affair with just before my target was shipped back to Israel. Blair never could keep her mouth close while in bed." Looking over at Annie, "Sorry to be so blunt. With Mossad closing in like lightning, well that kind of pitched a monkey wrench into the works and the KGB had order me back to Russia."

"But you didn't return." Annie returning to her line of questions for Jordon.

"No, I didn't want to go to Russia so I got in touch with my contact at BND to return to Berlin but that went up in a pile of smoke because I was spying on Israel. Germany was hard at work making long-term amends for Hitler's actions and any report of spying on Israel would be very harmful to their ongoing relationship. I became a wash-up, burn out spy with no homeland to return too. So I pulled a vanishing act, moved out here until Blair found me. That's when she concocted the story of my death and staged the plane clash to save face, her reputation."

Eyal standing and putting his gun away. "With what you have told us I'm sure you know very well what going to happen next."

"I'm ready to go. I've got many health problems and the English dampness isn't helping by injured joints. The Israeli sun and warmth will be a welcome change. I'm also ready to give up names, dates and places, to fully cooperate with Israel."

"We'll drive back to London tonight and I'll have an agent meet us at the airport and by tomorrow morning you will be in Israel with health care and some warm weather."

"Good." Jordon handing the large cat to Busby, "Take care of Rufus for me. He really likes salmon." He also walked over to a chest and pulled out a metal box, handing it to Busby also, "This should pay for any trouble I might have caused you. You have been a good friend Busby Ferguson."

"I will my friend, I will take good care of Rufus and thank you." There was a small tear in Busby eye as he watch Eyal and Annie lead Jordon Vogel out the door.

_(There is more to come. The mystery is not over yet.)_


	8. Think This Will Work

Watching the Mossad agent and nurse escort the frail Jordon Vogel on to a private jet for his trip to Israel. "Can't help to feel a little sorry for him." Annie taking Eyal by the arm and holding tight.

"His quality of life will improve and he has already been a prisoner in that watch tower for the past three years. Don't feel sorry for him but be happy. The man will be treated well."

"Long day, how about a drink." Annie fishing for a nightcap.

"My thoughts also." Eyal putting his arm around Annie, "How about back at my hotel room with a nice bottle of fine wine. We can plan our next move. There is still Blair and more documents to be found."

This suited Annie just fine, she wanting to spend some alone time with Eyal, he was really growing on her and maybe he felt the same. Their kiss the other day was remarkable and she couldn't get out of her mind where else their relationship could go. Yeah she was feeling a bit starry-eyed toward this man.

"Just one night cap Neshema, we have an early appointment tomorrow and if I spend much more time with you... well I just keep that to myself." He walked into the hotel room ahead of her. She slipped off her coat, holding her hand out for his. Eyal also removed his coat and directed her to small kitchenette.

"I find if we drink in the kitchen area, it is a lot less alluring as the bedroom." Annie watching Eyal as he poured two glasses of wine.

"Personally I prefer the bedroom, but the kitchen is fine for tonight." He was being his playful self.

After they finished their drink, he stood up, walk over to her, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet, very gently putting his arm around her and softly kissed her lips, but before the kiss could go any farther, they broke their embrace, and he started to the bedroom area and picking up his coat. "I should be taking you back to your hotel."

As he reached the door, he turned to wait for Annie to put on her coat. "Have I ever told you I hate this London weather. I have a 40 foot sail boat in Greece, how about running away with me to the Aegean Sea and watch some sunsets together. I maybe extending myself a little about the running away part, it would be nice if you would join me some time on my boat. Just sailing around and soaking up the sun."

Annie with dancing lights reflecting in her eyes, smiled, "When this is all over with call me, I would like that."

"It's a date. Come now my Neshema, time for me to get you back to your hotel before I change my mind."

Reaching her hotel, Eyal walked Annie to the lobby. "I enjoyed tonight, I'll see you in the morning." He kisses her once more, very gently and left. Yes this was going to be the beginning Annie mused. Her last thoughts that night before sleep were visions of sailing the blue seas with Eyal.

The next morning, Annie slipping on her coat as Eyal picked up a two-way radio and checking the batteries. They were on their way to the rental car place, Annie was in need of a car for the day.

"Do you really think this will work?" Annie taking her radio from Eyal for a quick test.

"There are still some loose ends to this mystery and Blair is holding the key. With what Jordon told us on our drive back to London I really want to nail Blair for her part in a cover up. She has gotten by with way to much already."

"Well if this little ruse of yours doesn't work I got to call it quits and head back home. Joan is getting antsy about me staying too long in London."

"If this doesn't work I've run out of ideas and Blair would get by with murder."

"Yeah I know so let's go and give it our best shot." Annie slipping her arm into Eyal and giving him a kiss as they headed out the door.

"What's that for?"

"Luck and a promise of later tonight."

"All-Right Neshema..."

* * *

><p>"Alright, George." Blair Vogel snapped as she got out of her car and walked up to Eyal. He was leaning on his own Audi, a brief case in his hand, in front of Malcolm McMillan's derelict estate - <em>Trotter Castle<em>. "What do you want and why couldn't you have told me over the phone? What was so important that I had to drive all the way down here to meet you at this old place?"

Eyal gave her a chagrined look and a slight shake of his head. "I'm sorry, Bea…"

"Blair." She said coldly.

"Sorry?" Eyal blinked.

"My name is Blair. Only my close friends can call me Bea and you have proven not to be one of those."

Eyal dropped his head with a sigh his voice filled with contrition. "I'm sorry Blair. Look, you have every right to be angry with me. And I wouldn't have bothered you at all if this wasn't important. But I promise you, there just wasn't any other way but to call you down here."

"For what?" She looked at him suspiciously.

Eyal took a deep breath and made a show of cautiously scanning the surrounding area before turning his attention back to her. "I found some information." He told her. "It was…" He paused and took another look around before giving her his most sincere look. "Well, it was rather sensitive and I didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands."

Blair unconsciously echoed Eyal's furtive scan of the area before turning her still distrusting attention back to him. "What are you talking about? What information? I thought you couldn't find anything in the cellar that you were looking for?"

Eyal took another serious look around. "The _Totter Castle_ isn't the only place in England where your uncle had information." He told her. "We… well, I found some other… uh, files that showed something rather disturbing."

"What kind of files?" She wanted to know.

"Files about your real mother and father, as well as your husband." Eyal gave her a level look. "I didn't want to take the chance of anyone hearing about this or seeing us together, so I asked you to meet me here. This way, I'd be sure we were alone." Eyal noticed with some approval that Blair paled just slightly and a light sheen of perspiration appeared on her brow.

"Let's go into the house." She said stiffly. Leading the way she almost hurried to the door, unlocking it and leading Eyal inside. Once inside, she closed the creaking door firmly behind them and whirled around on Eyal. "Alright. Now, what is this non-sense about my 'real' parents and my dead husband?"

Eyal could tell she was hiding her nervousness under anger and that suited him just fine. "I found out that Mae Stewart wasn't your real mother." He told her. "And that Montgomery Stewart never existed. I have legal documentation of it."

Blair's paleness increased, but to her credit, she didn't shrink away from him. Standing firmly, she squared her shoulders and faced him head on. "That's preposterous. There is no legal documentation of it."

Eyal pounced on her words. "Ah, hah. So you do admit that Malcolm McMillan was your father and Anna Golubev was your mother?"

"I'll admit no such thing." She answered. "And I will not stand here and allow you to drag my family name through the mud. Malcolm McMillan has already done his share and now he is buried."

Blair turned back towards the door but Eyal stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Don't you even want to see the information I have?"

Blair looked down at the hand on her arm in irritation then back up at the smirk on Eyal's face. "I don't believe you have any sort of proof of…" Her words died on her lips as out of the corner of her eye, she saw something flit by in the shadows of the shuttered front room. "Did you see that?"

"What?" Eyal's brow furrowed as he looked around. "The only thing I see is a frightened woman who doesn't want to face the truth."

Eyal's words snapped Blair's attention back to him and she gave him a fierce glare. "I am not some frightened little wimpy of a girl like that partner of yours." She snarled. "I do not quake at your so-called truth and I would have to see this information you claim to have to believe anything you say."

"Well then," Eyal arched a brow at her. "Let me show you."

As Eyal placed the brief case onto a nearby table and pretended to have trouble opening it, He was buying time for Annie being there to carry out her part in this little play for the benefit of Blair. There was a muffled noise from the other room and Eyal with his back to Blair smile, Annie was at work.

"What was that?" Blair's head jerked up as she heard what sounded like a large thump in the other room.

"I don't hear anything." Eyal responded, praying silently that if it was Annie, she could hide quickly before Blair entered the room and found her.

"Well, I did." Blair said firmly. "There's someone in there. Is that where your partner is, George? Are you two trying to scam me?" With each question, Blair's voice just a touch higher in pitch.

"Blair," Eyal said, stepping in front of Blair to block her. "My partner is not here. I told you, I wanted to show this stuff to you alone. I don't want Anna Walters to know any of this. She's too honest and will take it to the authorizes now you wouldn't want all the mess being dragged back through the newspapers. Think Blair, you are rebuilding your family's reputation.

Silently, Blair considered his words and finally nodded with a sigh. "Alright. Then show me this documentation you supposedly have."

Letting out the breath, he'd been holding, Eyal stepped back over to the briefcase and bent to open it, when suddenly it happened.

Eyal had just bent down to release the catch on the briefcase when a book come sailing through the air, missing his head by inches. Jolting up, Eyal glared over at Blair. "Why did you throw a book at me?"

Blair, who'd seen the book fly past, stood in shock, her face a much paler shade of white. "I… I… I didn't do that." She told him. "I swear. It wasn't me. That thing just came out of nowhere."

Eyal gave her an "Oh, sure" look and bent down, picking up the book. It was titled, _'Something Wicked This Way Comes'_ by Ray Bradbury. Eyal had to stifle a smile at Annie's cleverness. "Well, somebody threw it." He commented. "Books don't just throw themselves."

"George, I did not throw that book." Blair was fighting to remain calm but her voice was giving her away.

"Alright, alright." Eyal waved her off. "Look, let me just show this to you and then we can talk terms."

Blair momentarily forgot the book when Eyal mentioned terms. "What do you mean, terms?"

"I mean, what I'm going to get out of having this information." He told her. "You didn't think I was just going to hand this over to you without some sort of payment, did you? I'm just a lowly antique dealer with lots of overheard in my business and who isn't remunerated nearly enough for what I do and I'm in need of money, Blair." Eyal dropped his voice menacingly. "Of course, I can always share this information with a certain reporter I know."

"Show me what you have." Blair said angrily.

Grinning, Eyal reached into the briefcase and pulled out a file, handing it to her. "Of course, that's not the original." He told her. "Those are just copies. But as you can see I do have the goods on you and your uncle."

Blair opened the file and found a copy of a birth certificate naming Anna Golubev as the mother of a baby girl and Malcolm McMillan as the father. The certificate, thanks to a good cobber friend of Eyal, was official looking in every way, right down to the seal imprinted on its surface.

Behind that was a letter, apparently in Malcolm McMillan handwriting and addressed to his sister Mae. In the letter, he told her how Anna had given birth to their child and then threatened, just hours later, to take the baby away unless he married her. He went on to say that he momentarily lost his mind and killed Anna, dumping her body in a nearby lake on the _Trotter Castle_ property.

Blair looked up at Eyal. "Thi… this isn't right. He… he never… she didn't… Anna didn't want to marry him. She…" She stopped and took a deep breath. "My uncle did not write this." She managed to clear the momentary emotion from her voice.

"Didn't he?" Eyal asked as he stepped forward and turned that paper over to show page two of the letter. This page had Malcolm McMillan's signature and was dated just a few days after Blair's birth. "I had that signature checked, Blair. It's your uncle's."

Blair looked at the paper then turned it over and looked at what was beneath it. Another letter, this time from her dead husband Jordon Vogel and was addressed to Malcolm McMillan. The tone of this letter was very businesslike and to the point. Jordon Vogel had proof that McMillan had murdered Anna and he wanted McMillan full support of his conversation they had. Classified intel of the British military and weapons passed to Vogel. If not, he would take his information to the proper authorities and to the newspapers.

This time, Blair couldn't hide the quivering of her chin as she read the letter and Eyal knew he had her. "I figure your uncle didn't like having the squeeze put on him by your husband so he killed him." He told her, watching her carefully to gauge her reaction.

Blair looked up at him and started to reply when an eerie howling could be heard in the house. Though rather soft at first, it seemed to come from everywhere at once and was getting louder. Without thinking, Blair immediately stepped close to Eyal. "Let's take this somewhere else." She said, trembling.

But Eyal shook his head. "I'm not giving you any opportunities to get anything on me like your husband had on McMillan. That's why I chose this house. No way for you to trap me here."

Blair gave him a disparaging look. "I have no reason to trap you. I…"

Just then, a moan could be heard, followed by the sound of footsteps, as though someone was walking through the house with heavy shoes and a cane. Step, slide - tap. Step, slide - tap. Step, slide – tap.

Blair turned absolutely white as she looked around for the source of the noise but saw absolutely nothing except dust motes dancing in the air in the small ray of sunshine that had breached the closed drapes. "I want to leave here now." She said as she started for the door. But just as she stepped away from Eyal, the front door opened, violently slamming back against the wall then just as violently slamming closed again.

Both Eyal and Blair froze. Eyal knew Annie was good but he hadn't thought she quite that good.

Suddenly another noise could be heard. It was the sound of a piano, playing a tune from Tchaikovsky's _Swan Lake_. Blair's eyes almost literally bugged out as she looked wildly about her. "That… that was… was my moth… mother's favorite tune." She said. "My father told me that. He… he…" She swallowed hard. "I'm getting out of here."

Starting forward again, she marched towards the now closed door and gripped the knob but it would not open. Pulling with all her might, she could not get it to budge.

Eyal was seriously impressed with his partner and had to fight to pretend to be as frightened as Blair. "Come on." He said gruffly. "Let's try the back door."

Nodding, Blair let go of the knob and followed Eyal hurriedly to the kitchen in the back of the house. But it was the same there. The door refused to open. "What are we going to do?" She moaned in fear.

"Well, you know." Eyal tried to sound reasonable. "I've heard that anytime a ghost acts up, he wants something. Maybe the ghost is your mom and she just wants the truth to be known. She wants it known that Malcolm McMillan murdered her."

But Blair shook her head. "My father loved my mother." She said sadly. "He didn't murder her. She died giving birth to me."

Just then the doors of all the cabinets in the room suddenly began to bang open and closed and several dishes hurled themselves to the floor to smash to smithereens. Blair turned even paler, if that was possible.

"Well, it seems that something here wants something." Eyal gave her a pointed look, not fazed in the slightest by the chaos going on around him.

As he spoke the moaning began again and though the cupboard doors had slowed in their banging, they had not stopped. Above it all the music could be heard again as well as the footsteps and now another even more terrifying sound made itself known. A voice, hissing in their ears from nowhere. "Tell the truth." It demanded. "TELL THE TRUTH!"

Even Eyal was slightly shaken by that one, though he knew it wasn't real. "So what is it that you're hiding, if not your mother's murder?" He made his tone a little kinder and softer when Blair raised her eyes to his with a profoundly anguished expression on her face.

"I killed my husband." She said.


	9. It Couldn't Be But

As soon as the words left her mouth, the discord surrounding them ceased. The cabinet doors stopped in mid-swing, the plates that had started to lift themselves from the shelves settled back down with just a slight clang and the music, footsteps and voice could no longer be heard. All was deathly still.

Eyal ignored the silence as he stared at her, shocked at what he'd heard. "You… You murdered him?" He managed.

Blair shrugged as she sank wearily down into a nearby chair. "Murder is a relative term." She said cryptically. "I did kill him, but I'm not sure I would call it murder."

"Well, what exactly would you call it?" Eyal asked as he leaned back against a counter for support.

The Blair that looked up at him was not the one he had always seen. Gone was the superior and haughty sneer. Her stiff and upright posture had melted and she seemed to almost curl into herself.

"He was trying to force my father to do some things that were illegal." She began to explain. "Jordon threatened to ruin him if he didn't go along. My father to protect me when along with Jordon's demands for a few years. I know what you must think of him, with the gambling scandal and all, but that simply wasn't the man I knew. He was a good man who tried hard to do the right things; he just got caught up in… in…" She paused and took a deep breath not sure what words to use to convince him.

Eyal moved forward and sat on a chair next to her. She was speaking so softly, he was afraid the wire he was wearing would have trouble picking her voice up otherwise. Besides, there was something so sad about her; he almost wanted to give her a hug.

Blair straightened a little and looked over at Eyal. "My father was spiraling downward, gambling debts and the parade of women in his life were taking a toll on him and then, somehow a reporter found out about his life style outside of the Department of Defense and wrote a long feature in the _London Times_. That force my father to resign but it didn't stop there. MI6 had known about sensitive intel being leaked and launched an investigation into my father's actives and he was arrested shortly thereafter."

Blair looking down at her folded hands as a few tears fell. She slowly wiped her face and when on with her side of the story. "My father was murdered while being held in jail. Someone didn't want him to talk but at the time of his death I knew nothing about Jordon's involvement with any agreement between him and my father. To me, my husband was an old kindly man that I turned to for support and he was absolutely wonderful through the entire ordeal. But as the years drifted by since my father's death Jordon and I grew apart. That's when I met you George and for that I have no regrets."

"Nor do I Blair. Please go on." Eyal with an exceedingly compassionate tone.

"Well after you returned to Cyprus I received another hard blow that I can't believe. My husband was having an affair with a woman and it had been going on for years. As if that wasn't enough, I found out Jordon was a Russian spy, and he was the one blackmailing my father into leaking top secret information. I went to find Jordon but he was nowhere to be found, I mean vanished into thin air. It was weeks before the private detective I hired located someone living at _Trotter Castle_ and I assumed it was Jordon. So I drove down there."

"Why didn't you just call the police?"

"All the information I had was hearsay, no real proof. So I decided to find out if it was Jordon and confront him face to face. It was early evening when I found him standing on the edge of the cliff overlooking the English Channel. It wasn't as I expected, he was mad, mad at me and the world in general. Quickly we found ourselves in a heated argument. Jordon was furious and he accused me of having numerous affairs the whole time we were married."

"You did Blair. I was one of the affairs."

"You were the only one George." Blair was as good at mendacious lying as any spy could be. "But like I said, he was furious and pushed me trying to walk away. I wasn't finished with him, there were still more questions for him to answer and the more we argued the angrier he got. He started pushing me and hitting me with his fist, brutally hitting and hitting me again and again.

Eyal's brow crinkled in confusion. "Are you saying you killed him in self-defense?"

Blair sighed and shook her head. "No, it wasn't that, exactly." Getting back to her feet, Blair stepped over to the cellar door and haltingly touched the knob before pulling her hand back as if it were hot.

"We were here, in this house, when it happened."

"Here?" Eyal was so engrossed in what she was telling him, he had forgotten that his partner had yet to put in an appearance. "Were you staying here? Here in this house?"

"He finally stopped beating on me and came into the house, swearing the whole time in his native tongue of German. Collecting myself together I followed him to the main hall way and once more tried to talk with him. He just dismissed me, call me a man hungry bitch. He turned away from me and I hit him as he walked into the kitchen. We were here, in this room. Jordon was furious. I stepped up next to him and took his arm, thinking I could calm him down, but he shook me off, shoved me backwards. I fell on the floor and before I could get up, he was on me, kicking me in the stomach and clubbing me with his fist and screaming at me."

"Then it was self-defense." Eyal said logically. "You were just defending yourself."

She paused and Eyal noticed her hand gently and briefly caress her stomach before she looked back up at him. "He didn't care about me but something in him made him stopped. He wouldn't have done anything else to me and left me laying there on the floor. But he'd already done enough." She raised anguished eyes to him. "I was pregnant, George, pregnant with his child. When he was hitting and kicking me, I could feel something inside of me break and I knew he had killed my baby, our baby. When I finally got up off the floor, I couldn't think of anything else but doing the same thing to him."

Eyal closed his eyes and dropped his head. It now made sense and despite himself he felt sorry for her. "Blair…"

"Leaving him bleeding here I ran, ran as fast as I could away from here and back to London. Once I had calmed down I knew someone would soon find the body and I had to dispose of it. That when I drove back down here with a hired person of questionable background and there was no body anywhere. A trail of blood leading from the kitchen out back and into the woods beyond. We search, oh believe me we searched but still not finding a body we gave up. Let the foxes take care of the corpse and we returned to the house. We went about washing all traces of blood from the house, lock the place up tight and left."

"What about the plane crash Blair. Did you also stage the plane crash?"

"That part was easy. Lucky for me Jordon was a pilot with his own private plane, all I had to do was find another pilot to fly the plane near Russia and crash it. Do you have any idea how many unemployed pilots are out there looking for the next pound. Money can buy just about anything if you know the right people. I had everything arranged, the plane crash and the memorial service. The perfect farewell to Jordon Vogel and I could go on with my life.

"So you arranged the cover up of Vogel's death."

"YES." Her head snapped up, anger replacing the sorrow. "I killed that bastard because of what he did to me. I grabbed a knife and stabbed him till I was sure he was dead. And I don't regret it. But I am not going to prison for it." Reaching into the purse she still had hanging on her shoulder, she quickly pulled out a gun and raised it towards Eyal.

Outside Annie had just driven up. She had car trouble and was late in getting to _Trotter Castle_. There in the driveway was Eyal's Audi and Blair's Mercedes. She quietly opens the door, pulled her gun and inched toward the front door. The door was ajar and as she entered she found the house quiet. Too quiet. Walking a little unsteadily, she made her way through the main hallway and into the kitchen, where a startling sight caught her eyes.

"Oh my gosh!" Was all she could think to say.

When Annie entered the kitchen, she saw Eyal and Blair locked in, what at first, looked like a passionate embrace on the floor. Annie knew Eyal was dedicated but she thought that was going a bit far. Then she realized what she was witnessing, was instead a struggle and despite the odds, it looked like Blair was going to win as she was practically sitting on top of Eyal, her hands around his throat.

Annie quickly crossed the room and grabbed the detestable woman by the arm. "Let him go." She grunted pulling as hard as she could.

But Blair, with a strength born of madness and hatred, would not budge. Annie stepping back and pointed her weapon at Blair. "Stop and get off him now or I'll blow your head off." Annie's voice was strong, clear and forceful.

Blair froze as she looked up and saw Annie holding the gun in her hands. Without releasing Eyal, she sat atop him for a second gauging her chances of getting the gun away from Annie. At that moment, Blair knew she had lost the battle but one last punch. Pulling an almost unconscious Eyal slightly up by the lapels of his jacket, she slammed his head back down on the floor before letting him go.

Never taking her eyes off of Annie, she got to her feet and slowly began to approach her. "You aren't going to shoot me." She said in a calm and almost soothing voice. "You're too afraid to shoot me."

Annie swallowed hard and backed up a few inches but kept her arms locked in front of her and the gun held tightly in both of her hands, her right index finger on the trigger. "I… I don't want to shoot you." Annie confessed. "But I will, if you don't stop right there." She hoped her bluff worked because she really didn't want to shoot that gun.

"No you won't." Blair said assuredly. "You don't have what it takes."

"She does," Eyal said from behind her, "and so I do." Both women had been locked in each other's sights and neither one had seen Eyal getting to his feet. When the struggle between he and Blair had begun, she had knocked his gun away from him and he had found it where it had landed under the table. Reclaiming his weapon, he now held it steadily against Blair's head. "Don't move, Blair." He warned. "I don't want to shoot you anymore than Annie does, but I will."

Blair halted her forward progress and stood perfectly still for a second. But she wasn't about ready to give up just yet. Suddenly dropping to the floor, she kicked out her leg, hitting Annie just below the knee and knocking her to the ground, causing her to bang her head on the cabinet behind her.

Desperately, Blair lunged for the gun that Annie had dropped but Eyal was on her in an instant. Grabbing her by the shoulder, he pulled her up and around and pulled back his fist, knocking her senseless in one smooth punch. Blair went down without a whimper.

Eyal released her and quickly moved over to Annie. "Annie!? You okay?" His heart was pounding loudly at the thought that she might seriously been hurt.

Annie was feebly trying to pull herself up but the task seemed beyond her for the moment. She did manage a smile though and a slight nod towards Eyal. "I'm alright, Eyal." She managed to reassure him.

Just then two local constables came rushing into the room, guns drawn and raised, ready to do battle. Only the battle was already over. Followed by Busby Ferguson and seeing Annie on the floor and Eyal holding her, "You two alright?"

Eyal nodded with a touch of irritation, as he helped Annie to her feet. "Delighted to see you again.?"

One of the constables bent down and grabbed a groggy Blair by the arm, helping her to her feet. "Sorry, Sir for not being here sooner but we just got the call." he said as he cuffed Blair and started leading her towards the door. "I'll take her out to the car and you explain it to Agent Lavin." He told Busby as he passed him.

Annie motioned to Busby that she would do the explaining. "Eyal, I wasn't upstairs. I had car trouble and that put me way behind getting to Seaford. Once here I found Busby and told him what we had planned and he called the police."

Eyal helped Annie to a chair and then looked at Busby a confused frown on his face. "So you weren't here either? Then how did you get all of those special effects to work so well?"

Busby gave Eyal and an odd look. "What special effects? Agent Lavin, are you sure you're alright? There were no special effects."

Eyal reached in his pocket for the wire; he still wore, and found that though it was a bit battered, it was still intact. "You can hear everything that happened on this?" Handing the recording to the second constable.

Eyal was in total disbelief about what had happen, the music, footsteps, book flying and all the supernatural happens but decided to keep it to himself. No need to even half way admit that just might be something like ghost about but who's ghost?

But Annie shook her head, instantly regretting it as her head pounded a bit. "When I got here the house was quiet, Eyal. That was just before I came in here. I saw you and Blair fighting and she was trying to strangle you and then I grabbed her, but she was like a mad woman and well I had to use my gun and…"

"Alright, Annie." Eyal stopped her in mid-ramble. Running a hand through his hair, he looked around the room before returning his gaze back to Busby. "Did you ever hear plates breaking or footsteps or a strange voice or doors slamming opened and closed in this house. Because that is what just happened here and now."

"Sure but it was either me or Vogel and he had wired the cabinets to swing open and close as well as remotely locking and unlock the front and back door. But all had to operated my us and I was in town and you know Vogel is in Israel."

Annie shook her head, now more certain than ever that Eyal must have sustained a concussion of some sort from his fight with Blair. "You are saying there were those things happening without any human help."

"And you weren't here?" Eyal just wanted to be sure.

Annie again shook her head again. "No, we weren't."

Eyal sat back in a chair, totally bewildered. "I think I need to go to the hospital and have my head examined." He said dejectedly.


	10. Goodbye or Hello

Once back in London, Eyal had a debriefing to go through at the Bond House and Annie was on the phone with Joan. Her time had run its course of staying in London and she was being forced to be on the next flight out. Only seeing Eyal briefly at the airport just before boarding her flight to Washington he was understanding of her fast departure.

"Sorry I can't keep that promise about tonight but maybe again, sometime in the near future." Annie with her arms around Eyal as he so loving glazed in her eyes.

"In the near future my dear Neshema. Wish I could hop that flight with you but I still have business here in London and a few things to wrap up."

"I know Eyal. Oh how well I know, it's our jobs."

"I remember promising a sunset some day and I plan on keeping that promise."

"I shall hold you to that promise and the next time, no ghost."

Her flight number was call and there wasn't any more to be said, he loving kisses her, "Until later Neshema."

Three nights later, Annie was sitting in Danielle's den playing scrabble with her and complaining loudly about the woman's propensity to cheat. Secretly she didn't mind though. It was good to be with her family back home and knowing the kind of home life Blair Vogel had, had made her cherish her own even more.

Deciding to take a break from the game, she had stepped into the kitchen to make cocoa for herself and Danielle when she heard the familiar tapping on the kitchen window. Taking a furtive glance into the den, she quickly slipped out the door to find Eyal standing just out of sight waiting on her. "Hello." She smiled, happy to see him. "How are you? When did you get to Washington?"

"That's my question." Eyal answered. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to get by before now, but I got kind of tied up back in London and just landed a few hours ago. But I did want to make sure you were okay."

Annie's smile broadened. "I'm okay. Sorry I had to leave London in such a hurry but Joan was really on my case about returning."

"I understand and good you are okay," Eyal said sincerely. "Hope Joan wasn't too upset with you."

"I just told her solving a cold case of attempted murder and locating a Russian spy. I think she knows we were working together but didn't elaborate on it. My guess is the mission was a little more than successful and the intel from the York house has really paid off." Annie asked watching him intently. "Where you worried about me."

"Well, no... Er... Well yes, maybe in a way." Eyal answered. "I also thought you might want to know how things turned out with the mission."

"Uh, oh…" Annie fought to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "Of course I do."

"Well," Eyal leaned against the side of the house with a smug smile. "With Blair's confession, MI6 was able to legally search the house and they found those files. Some were McMillan's and other were that of Jordon Vogel. They were actually upstairs in the parlor in a small filing cabinet. Also found a walled off section of the basement that held Anna Golubev's body. The coroner can't tell how she died but he couldn't find any obvious signs of violence so Blair was probably telling the truth about her mother dying in childbirth."

Annie's smile faltered and she dropped her head. "I'm glad she was found." She said sadly. "But it sure is sad to hear about. What about Blair? What's going to happen to her?"

"Well," Eyal shook his head with a sigh. "She's got an attorney, the best money can buy and she's claiming insanity and a coerced confession but with what we have on tape, there's not much chance of her getting out of this completely."

"What about what you don't have on tape?" Annie asked pointedly. "I mean, I know I wasn't there for most of it, but I also know you saw and heard some pretty strange things there that night."

Eyal started to deny it but he knew he could be honest with Annie. "You know," he said as he pushed himself away from the side of the house and prepared to leave. "I've come to the conclusion, that maybe I was wrong. Maybe there are such things as ghosts."

If Annie was surprised by his admission, she didn't show it. Instead she grinned. "Does that mean that you believe maybe Anna's ghost was helping us out that night?"

Eyal shrugged. "I don't know, honestly. But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not going ghost hunting anytime soon to find out."

He is taking Annie in his arms. "I have all I can handle right in my arms." Bending his head down with a kiss on her nose and finding her mouth, they held their embrace and passionate kiss. Slowly he pulled back a little, "Dinner tomorrow night?"

"Of course." Just then Danielle could be heard calling Annie's name. "Annie? Is the cocoa just about ready?"

Annie gave Eyal an apologetic look as she turned back towards the door and slightly cracked it. "Not yet Danielle. But I'll have it in just a few minutes." She called.

Turning back to Eyal, she found he'd already taken his leave and was gone into the night as usual. "Who needs ghosts?' She muttered as she opened the door and went inside. "I have Eyal Lavin to pop in and out."


End file.
